Chris and Lorena's Little World

Bike racing is fun

2011-08-06T21:08:00.001-04:00

Long time, no update. Let me tell you, it isn't for a lack of wanting to write but simply a lack of time. Since the Mohican 100K we've been doing some racing, primarily of the mountain bike variety with two NEO Power Series races, but there was also the Shreve Road Race by RideOn Wooster the weekend after Mohican. Brief synopsis of our results:

Shreve Road Race (June 11th):

Unfortunately, Lorena had to work that day so only I ventured down for the Cat 4 race not knowing how good my road racing form would be. I hadn't done any road races all Spring while prepping for Mohican. Turns out, it wasn't too bad as I managed to finish with the main group (aside from the RideOn breakaway). It was amazing how many people we shed on the big climb every lap. According to the results, I came in 17th out of 35 finishers. I wasn't too upset about this and was generally happy with my overall effort. Props to Robert Sroka for helping me try to keep the pace up late in the race as we tried to reel in the break. Neither of us had teammates and it seemed like only a handful of us wanted to do any work after the break.

This was a well run race, but I do have one complaint. The centerline rule was well enforced by the race official following our group... until he came around us when the breakaway went up the road. Then everything went to hell in the group with people moving up at the end across the centerline. Mainly, it was disappointing because those rules are there to keep us safe and we don't get the luxury of closed roads. The same rules apply to EVERYBODY and I hope they enforce it better next time.

Results Page

Reagan MTB Time Trial (June 19th):

The first race of the NEO Power Series and only the second mountain bike time trial I've ever done. Funnily enough, Lorena and I were staged such that she started immediately after me. Nothing like the motivation of trying to not get caught by your wife to make you go fast! The course was in good shape and we both had a good race. I crashed about a mile from the finish that cost me a little time and then burped my front tire a half mile later in a turn. Thankfully, it managed to reseat itself and hold air. In the end, we both finished before the big thunderstorm hit and drenched all of the poor beginners still out on the course.

Chris - 7th in 52:28 (7 seconds out of 6th and 8 seconds out of 5th) - Sport Senior 30-39

Lorena - 5th in 59:53 (only 4 seconds out of 4th!) - Sport Women 19+

Results Page

Vulture's Knob Double-Down Enduro (July 16th)

We've grown to enjoy the Knob more this year and have ridden there a lot, but we also knew that 4 laps (~28 miles) was still going to be a challenge, especially in the heat. I had a really good start and was 3rd behind fellow OCC rider Paul Dunn. We continued this way until just after The Snake when the leader dropped back. Some other rider came past me right before The Cradle to put me back in 3rd. Something happened to Paul at the creek crossing and I was back in 2nd until right before Hubcap City when Todd Bolgrin came around us. In the short, rocky downhill after Hubcap City I managed to hit a rock and puncture my rear tire. I saw a squirt of sealant and hoped that it would seal itself. Well, it didn't and I was stuck putting in a tube as what seemed like every other racer went by me. Turns out that my sealant was a dried up ball inside the tire and wasn't going to seal anything. Time to play catch-up and so I went as hard as I could from then on to make up time. My second lap was faster than my first and the third faster than my second but I paid for it with a little slower fourth lap.

I also had my chain drop behind my cassette on my second lap that seemed to cost me 10 minutes because it wouldn't come out and I couldn't get the wheel out of the bike! I also managed to lay my left knee open on the second lap in a loose, downhill turn after The Furnace when my front tire washed out. That's just part of racing and I wasn't the only one with a story at the end of the day.

Lorena had such a great race that I never caught her after my flat! I heard her near the end and tried like hell to close the gap, but the heat was getting to me a little bit and I just couldn't go any harder. She finished 2nd (!) on the day behind Julie Lewis-Sroka.

Chris - 9th in 3:37:06 - Sport Senior 30-39

Lorena - 2nd in 3:30:34 - Sport Women 19+

Click Here for more of our photos.

Click Here for race photos by Bob Grimm.

Results Page

In between the races and training we managed to squeeze in a great trip to Michigan over the July 4th weekend for three great days of mountain biking with Marty and Traci. We rode 56 miles of some of the most flowing singletrack around with stops at the Potawatomi Trail, Maybury State Park, and Pontiac Lake. The only other mountain bike time trial I've ever done was at Pontiac back in 1997 when I raced against Marty and didn't know him let alone that he'd be my future brother-in-law.

Speaking once again of mountain bike time trials... Up next for us is yet another time trial tomorrow at Findley State Park with the Thorn Time Trial as stop #3 in the NEO Power Series. Should be fun, but we'll have to see how fast it's going to be after the storms that blew through today.

Mohican 100K Write-Up

2011-06-20T22:38:00.000-04:00

We've been busy on the racing front these last three weekends. There was the Mohican 100K on June 4th, the Shreve Road Race by RideOn on June 11th, and Sunday's Reagan Park TT to open the NEO power series by 331Racing. This post is about the Mohican 100K with write-ups for the others to follow.

In all our years of bike racing, neither Lorena nor I had ever competed in a mountain bike race as long as the Mohican 100K. Most have been in the 20-30 mile range and there is definitely a difference in how you prepare. We began the week before Christmas 2010 on a 24-week training plan by LW Coaching specifically for a 100K race. Looking back, we probably could have prepared a little more intensely, but not knowing what to expect I'd say we did it right. There is certainly nothing bad that came from how we trained. We definitely had a better base than in years past. Having learned a ton in this year's event, we'll train with more intensity next year for sure and already have plans to do it again.

I think we both can agree this was the hardest race we've ever done. I finished in 77th place in the Men's Open category of 153 finishers (185 starters) with a time of 7h 24m 35s. Lorena finished in 9th place in the Women's Open category of 17 finishers (22 starters) with a time of 8h 00m 2s. That 2 seconds is already fuel in Lorena's fire to go faster next year. Naturally, we both want to do it faster. Not that we're competitive or anything...

The full results can be found here: Mohican 100 Results

Fortunately, I was pretty smooth on the day and only crashed once... but, it was spectacular. At about mile-41 in the Mohican Wilderness trail, I busted the GU packet taped to my stem with my crotch as I went over the handlebars. Nothing like your shorts sticking to your saddle for 21 miles to get on your nerves. Lorena's only real bad luck was a flat in the latter half of the race that cost her some time.

Hats off to Ryan O'Dell and all of the volunteers that make it a great race. The course was extremely well marked and you can never go wrong with lining up Great Lakes Brewing for free beer to all finishers at the end. That first beer never tasted so good. Of course, so did the next couple...

There are more photos of us from the race here: Mohican 100K Gallery

Here's to doing it all again next year. Until then, back to our regularly scheduled racing program. Up next, the Shreve Road Race.

Inadvertent Social Commentary

2011-05-24T22:14:00.001-04:00

The lack of updates to the blog has not been due to a lack of ideas to post, merely a lack of enough hours in a day. Despite the almost assuredly more important things to write about, I couldn't help but share these gems discovered in one of the weekly sales flyers of the weekend newspaper.

Somehow, 20% seems like an exceedingly large increase in chair width and an odd marketing slant. And, thank goodness I no longer have to bend over to clean my feet! At this rate, I'm thinking it won't be long before the 'Easy Feet' will need to be 20% wider...

Moral of the story? Ride your bike. A lot.

On the mend - again

2011-03-27T13:05:00.000-04:00

For starters, here's a few photos taken on a ride from almost 3 weeks ago. The flooding around our area was pretty astonishing.

It's been a little while since the last post so this may be a little long-ish.

The last week has been fairly disappointing from a riding perspective. That is, there has been ZERO riding by yours truly as a result of some sort of respiratory infection that began last Saturday night. I do believe that the stress of that day probably helped the infection take hold as I likely tried to cram too much into one day.

Last Saturday I spent most of the morning disassembling the Fox fork on my mountain bike to replace the seals and give it some fresh oil. Based on several favorable reviews, I decided to install Enduro seals. Let me tell you, their step-by-step guide for taking the fork apart was spectacular. If you've never done this sort of repair before, their guide has great photos and descriptions of exactly what to do. If anything, I'd say they almost break it down too far. That's a good problem. Even with good instructions, I was still a little nervous about getting it all back together successfully so that I could ride at Mohican State Park the following day. (Stress Source #1)

After getting the fork back together, I had a field test on the training schedule. The plan was to get in about a 30-minute warm-up, do my 20-minute time trial, and then spin out the remaining 40-minutes. Well, I felt pretty good during my warm-up and proceeded into the time-trial. About 4-minutes in I hear my HRM beeping that it lost the transmitter signal. I tried moving the transmitter strap a little bit and it got the signal back. Now, my heart rate had dropped and I was hammering trying to get back up to speed. A minute later the signal drops again and never recovered. Since my average HR for the time trial was what I needed, I decided to bag the test for another day and simply rode hard for the remainder of the 20 minutes and then spun out the rest. It was disappointing because I really wanted to see how much my fitness had improved and the first part of the time trial was looking pretty good. The worst part was getting home and checking the battery in the transmitter. It had plenty of juice and so I'm left wondering where in the hell the problem lies. (Stress Source #2)

A sore throat started to kick in as I got my gear together for Sunday and I didn't sleep well at all Saturday night. When the alarm went off at 6:30AM, my throat felt awful and my head was fully plugged. A quick text to let the crew know I wasn't coming then it was back to sleep until around 9 or 9:30.

So, I'm thinking that mental stress plus the physical stress of the hard ride on Saturday joined forces to open the immune system gates. The most difficult thing about training for anything is avoiding over-training. It's amazing how quickly you an get too far in the hole and your body can't keep up. A week off the bike is my punishment for not listening to my body.

Lorena has fortunately managed to avoid contracting whatever has taken up residence in my lungs and sinuses. I'm jealous of her bike commute even though it's relatively short simply because it's an opportunity to get out and pedal. On a positive note, I am on the upswing and should be back in the saddle soon enough.

Wicked Good

2011-03-09T17:53:00.002-05:00

The agenda for the last month (and reason for lack of posts) has been: eat, work, eat, ride, eat, sleep, repeat. There have been a few days off from riding in there, but you can imagine that filling up that time with other things isn't difficult.

Since tonight is a scheduled night off, I had a chance to catch up on a few items I enjoy reading. This little gem came up:

A Hill in Spain from chris akrigg on Vimeo.

Be sure to turn on HD, full-screen, then kick back and enjoy.

(via megnut via kottke)

Up next, bike cleaning...

The Great Seatpost Destroyer

2011-02-06T11:24:00.001-05:00

I guess you could say we're pretty hard on seatposts. After the awfulness that was the removal of Lorena's seatpost from her now-deceased cross bike, I decided to take my own advice and start pulling and greasing all of the seatposts in all of our bikes.

When I tried to pull the seatpost from my Gunnar mountain bike, it didn't want to budge. This bummed me out because I really didn't want to cut a Thomson seatpost. To avoid cutting, I tried various other methods involving heat, cold, beating on it, and various penetrating fluids. I also clamped the head of the post in my bench vise and tried to use the frame as a lever to break it loose. The post was so stuck that the vise rotated on its base despite tightening the vise base with the assistance of a hammer. This was not an encouraging sign.

On Friday evening, I took the frame up to the bike shop because they have a more substantial vise. I clamped it up and tried twisting it again with the frame. A few tugs and I heard a loud 'Pop'. The glimmer of hope quickly turned to horror as I realized the popping noise was the seatpost cracking.

Obviously, the post was ruined and now I didn't feel so bad about cutting it. Within about 30 minutes on Saturday morning I had cut the post off and made a radial cut through its wall. I was then able to crush it in enough to twist it out with some Channel-Locks.

Oh well. Just another lesson learned and it certainly bears repeating that everyone should GO PULL AND GREASE ALL OF YOUR SEATPOSTS RIGHT NOW!

Nobody should ever have to cut a Thomson seatpost. Ever.

XC Skiing at The Wilderness Center

2011-01-20T22:24:00.002-05:00

We've had quite a few opportunities to cross-country ski already this year. The Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath is only 1/4-mile walk from the house. While proximity is nice, it's pretty much flat and you're working the entire time. Kendall Lake, in the Cuyahoga Valley, has nice trails with some steep hills that are better to go up than down on XC skis. At least you get rewarded for climbing the hills with a break now and then.

This last Saturday we ventured over to The Wilderness Center in Wilmot to check out the ski-ability of their trails. Turns out, it's pretty great as long as you avoid the Pond Trail beyond it's intersection with the Wilderness Walk. We did a big clockwise loop plus the Pond trail in about 1.5 hours. There was only one section we missed that would have probably added another 15-20 minutes. The downhills aren't that steep and didn't have sharp turns like the trails at Kendall Lake. You can view a trail map for The Wilderness Center here.

There was only one guy skiing when we got there and another couple arrived just as we finished. We didn't encounter anyone else while out on the trail. Sometimes it's nice to have that 'all to ourselves' feeling whether on skis or bikes.

Slideshow:

Avoid Trainer Boredom Now

2011-01-17T21:58:00.001-05:00

Anybody reading this in NE Ohio knows the weather hasn't been very favorable for outdoor riding since the first of the year. Trainer/roller rides have unfortunately been more the norm than the exception for us. Avoiding boredom when riding indoors just got a little easier now that we've been turned on to Freecaster.tv.

I first found out about this from a recent blog post by Jeff Kerkove and it's pretty fabulous. Set up the laptop in front of the bike, turn on Freecaster and watch some World Cup XC, downhill, and four-cross mountain bike races from the 2010 season. Most of them are full replays.

I'd like to see some of those World Cup guys turn some laps at Vulture's Knob.

Perseverance

2011-01-16T12:33:00.000-05:00

There's a lot to be said for perseverance. Sometimes it simply amounts to beating your head against the wall with nothing good to show for it except a bruised forehead. Other times, the end result is pretty glorious if somewhat destructive. In this case, it was getting Lorena's seatpost out of her cyclocross bike. What seemed like a pretty mundane part of stripping a bike down for repaint turned into nearly 8 hours of frustration, broken tools, and finally, success. A seatpost should never look like this after removal:

We've sent the frame back to Gunnar to get it repainted because well-used bicycles eventually show off that use in the form of chipped paint, scratched decals, and rusty dropouts. Especially a cyclocross bike. I started stripping components off the bike right after Thanksgiving and everything went pretty well with a few exceptions:

Corrosion on the inside of the aluminum headset spacers had them somewhat stuck on the fork steerer tube and so I had to ruin one of the spacers with some Channel-Locks to get it free. (To be fair, it was probably the first time in 7 years those components had been removed.)
The always-scary bottom bracket only required two people to break it free instead of the four people to get the one out of my cross bike.
The seatpost.

When the seatpost wouldn't budge using the seat for leverage, I removed the seat and clamped the head of the seatpost in a vise and tried to use the frame as a lever. It simply twisted the head of the seatpost inside the seatpost tube. At that point, the seatpost was ruined so I tried clamping the tube itself in the pipe jaw part of my bench vise for better bite. This is the result:

No matter how hard I clamped, the jaws just gouged deeper. As a last resort, I cut the seatpost off and proceeded to spend hours using a hacksaw blade to make radial cuts. The first few hours I simply held onto the hacksaw blade using a rag before I noticed a chunk of scrap wood that I figured would be a good handle for a hacksaw blade. This made things a lot easier but I still had to make two radial cuts to eventually chisel out a quarter of the post. The chiseling process involved breaking the chisel off in the frame and breaking a tip off a screwdriver to while trying to get the chisel out. (Spoiler: I got it out.)

I was never so relieved when I noticed the seatpost start moving as I tried to collapse it inward. At that point, I cut a little notch in the end of it with my Dremel so that I could use a hammer and screwdriver to beat it out far enough to get a good grip with my bench vise. Once in the vice, a little rocking of the frame was enough to twist the seatpost out... And there was much rejoicing.

Now, we just wait until the end of January or first of February for the frame to be sent back to begin it's next seven years of service. The new seatpost that goes into it will definitely get more regular attention. Then again, if not, at least I know the exact procedure for getting that one out.

Moral of the story: Go pull all of your seatposts right now before you forget.

What a difference a day can make

2010-12-12T16:26:00.009-05:00

As the Storm-Of-The-Century-Of-The-Week is bearing down upon us, I figured this recent XKCD comic was very appropriate.

I'd be lying if I said we've never watched the radar hoping for those 'red' spots to head our way. Let's face it, severe weather is pretty cool, just as long as it doesn't do things like destroy your house. Why do you think those storm chaser shows are so popular? In this case though, the snow is fine as long as shoveling it is not a drudgery or your roof collapses.

Yesterday, Lorena and I took advantage of the practically summer-like conditions (43-degrees and sunny!) to take in 2.5 hours of Stark, Wayne, Holmes, and Tuscarawas counties on the roadie bikes.

What little snow there was in places started to melt and made for wet roads and some puddles. All the cyclists around here know what wet roads in Amish country means... I'll spare the details. The only hiccup in the ride was a flat tire at about the furthest point away from the house. It's amazing what a tiny little piece of glass can do.

Guilty Pleasures

2010-12-05T22:18:00.000-05:00

We've been in the "off-season" for a few weeks now and training for 2011 starts pretty soon. Sure, we've still been riding but it's nice to have a little downtime to indulge in things we often don't have time for when training and racing are in full swing. It's also a time to get some things done around the house that have been put off for the same reasons. That whole "getting things done" part might be in jeopardy with Angry Birds in the picture.

This game certainly doesn't need any further advertisement since it's the #1 paid game in the App Store. There's a good reason for that. It is really stinking fun for only $0.99. I had the free "lite" version with 12 levels and got addicted. The full version has 120 levels and I've gotten through about 65 of them so far. If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch and don't have Angry Birds, forego just one load of laundry for hours of entertainment. You'll be so engrossed in the game that you won't notice the smell…

NEOCX Series Roundup

2010-11-28T10:26:00.003-05:00

As you can probably tell, it's been pretty busy in our little world for the last few weeks. My plan was to post a recap of each of the last three races individually, like usual, but "stuff" just kept getting in the way of writing. Instead, I've decided to just do a brief summary of each from what I'd already written. Hell, it wasn't until this afternoon that I managed to pull pictures from my camera from the Blue Sky (or Not) race in Euclid. . . That was 3 weeks ago.. .

NEOCX #8 - Cross My Heart and Hope to Die - Willoughby

November 7, 2010

We knew this was going to be a muddy race before we even arrived. Watching the radar showed that it had rained in Willoughby for most of the day before. Thankfully, it wasn't as bad as [last year](http://chrisandlorena.blogspot.com/2009/10/bike-authority-cyclocross-series-4.html. Five dismounts per lap including the infamous sled hill that was ridiculously steep with no real opportunity to remount at the top. Had to pick my way up through the crowd after a somewhat bad start. Lots of mud, wet feet, and fun. Pushed hard all the way to the end but was a little disappointed with my finish. Especially after coming off my 8th place at Chagrin Falls the week before.

Chris: 12th place - Men's B

Lorena: 7th place - Women's B

Here are some links to more photos from the race:

A gallery of us as taken by Victor Dvorak

Victor Dvorak's Willoughby Photos

Juli Lewis's Willoughby Photos

Mehul Gala's Willoughby Photos

NEOCX #9 - Blue Sky (or Not) - Euclid

November 14th, 2010

Even though there was misty-rain falling in Navarre when we left, it wasn't raining in Euclid when we arrived. It was a little on the chilly side with the wind and overcast skies. The course was rather soft from recent rain and very slick in the corners. This was perhaps the most technical cyclocross course I've ever raced on. Lots and lots of turns with many being off-camber or 180-degree. I ate it three times throughout the race and those crashes cost me two places in the end. The competition was pretty tight so it didn't take much of a bobble from anyone to lose/gain time. The run-up was steep and slick, especially at the top if you tried to remount. Despite being primarily flat on top of the hill, the fastest way to traverse it was to run because of the off-camber turns around the utility poles. One again I pushed it hard right to the end but probably let those crashes get to me a little too much on the last lap.

Chris: 11th place - Men's B

Lorena: 5th place - Women's B

Mehul Gala's Euclid Photos

NEOCX #10 - Kirtland Park - Cleveland

November 21st, 2010

This was the season finale and you couldn't have picked a better day or a better venue for it. I've lost track of how many times I've raced at Kirtland Park and I'm not alone in saying that it's probably one of my favorite venues. Our obvious favorite is Starcrossed at the Marymoor Velodrome in Seattle. It was 60F or so at the start of our race and the sun was shining. The course conditions were probably about perfect traction-wise. My 10th place standing in series-points got me called up to the front row at the start. I managed to have a good start and was right around 10th before the first downhill.

Laps were very fast on the short-ish course and I traded a few spots on the first couple. On about the third lap this guy passes me right before a 180-degree turn and proceeds to crash in front of me in the turn. Now I have to run the turn/hill and I dropped my chain but didn't realize it until I went to remount. This cost me a place. Two times later in the race I managed to shift my chain behind the cassette going into the shorter section of stairs. This cost me a couple of places when I had to stop and jerk the chain out. I suppose that's racing. All I know is that I certainly didn't leave anything out there. In the end:

Chris: 14th place - Men's B

Unfortunately, Lorena had to work that day and couldn't be at the race. Bummer.

Here are some links to race photos taken by others:

Robert Sroka's Photos

Juli Lewis's Photos

Overall I finished 7th in the total series points for the B-field. Fortunately, I had that 6th place at Elyria and the 8th place at Chagrin #2 to help put me there because most of my other finishes were around 11th. I'm already looking forward to next year's racing season, especially cross. This was a fun year and I'm pretty pleased with my performance even though I always want to do better. Perhaps next year I can get up to the top 5 or better.. . I once finished 5th in the series and I'm overdue.

Hats certainly go off to everyone involved with promoting the Northeast Ohio Cyclocross Series. It's a lot of work to host a race and every team that hosted one did a great job. The series has been around for a long time and seems to grow every year. I'd say that speaks volumes to the quality of those running the show.

Chagrin River Cyclocross Challenge Day-2: Hyde

2010-11-09T22:53:00.005-05:00

(Photo Credit: Gregg Brekke)

Compared to Saturday, Sunday really felt like a polar opposite. First of all, we knew about the detour and parking situation so we left a little earlier. Second, I didn't have to work on my bike an hour before the race because of unforeseen events. Third, I didn't have to deal with a costume although Lorena decided to wear hers. Given how much time she spent making it and how awesome it was, it was only natural to do so. It felt like a regular race day and that had me more focused on the race itself.

The course was simply the reverse of Saturday and seemed to be a little more firm than the day before. For whatever reason, there seemed to be more flow and is perhaps attributable to just knowing what to expect. I managed to get a very good start and was in the top six or seven riders doing down the first straight. That got me even more motivated and I managed to stay there for a good portion of the race. With three laps to go, I got passed by someone but wasn't able to bring him back. On top of that, I could feel/hear someone right on my wheel with two laps to go. I basically buried myself for the last two laps to hold him off and came in with 8th place. Admittedly, it was a bit of a personal victory just to hold him off for two laps and I gave a little fist pump as I crossed the finish line. The 9th place rider and I congratulated each other on our efforts afterward because it really made it simultaneously fun and hard at the same time.

Of course, when you do well you feel good and it really felt like a day of redemption after such a miserable race the day before. I felt like I was right back up where I should be finishing and the Huck-A-Meter was back in the Green. Lorena finished 6th in a pretty tough Women's field this year. In fact, the leading woman passed quite a few of the men's B-field on Sunday, including me.

(Photo Credit: Gregg Brekke)

A big thanks to Brett Davis and all of the volunteers for hosting some tough racing at a beautiful venue. I hope it continues next year.

Next up: Cross My Heart and Hope to Die at Willoughby

Chagrin River Cyclocross Challenge Day-1: Jekyll

2010-11-06T10:19:00.004-04:00

(Photo Credit: Gregg Brekke)

Boy, have I been remiss in updates lately. Between work, training, racing, and everyday life stuff, I finally got a relaxing morning to write.

Last weekend brought stops #6 and #7 of the Northeast Ohio Cyclocross Series, the 5th Annual Chagrin River Cyclocross Challenge hosted by Brett Davis and Solon Bicycle. It was our first time racing there and you really couldn't ask for a more scenic venue. The course had a little bit of everything and they simply reversed the direction from Saturday to Sunday.

Here's how Saturday went down:

Unfortunately, Lorena had to work on Saturday and couldn't race. It's probably better that she wasn't there because the Huck-A-Meter got pushed into the red. Lots of things stacked up to contribute to this:

There was a bridge out within a mile of the venue that required a detour of unknown length and led to my arriving later than I wanted. The 'good' parking was full leading to:
Being directed into 'overflow' parking between two pine trees with low hanging branches. I was nervous about this because my bike was on the roof but, there was another vehicle in there with bikes on their roof so I figured it must be OK. Well. . .
The branches caught my handlebars, twisted my bars around, bent my left shifter a little, and kinked the shift cable housing right at the shifter. Now:
There's less than an hour until the start of the race, I haven't registered, and now I have to work on my bike unsure if it's going to shift. As if all that's not enough:
I was already upset about the Halloween costume requirement for Saturday's race. While I won't go into all of the reasons why, my primary concern was not knowing if/how my costume would impact racing.

Let's just say all of this didn't make my mindset ideal for focusing on racing. Despite being on the front row, my start wasn't very good. It became single-file quickly, especially in the turn by the river. Of course, someone crashed there causing a back-up that didn't help in the 'positive thoughts' department. It just increased the amount of ground I'd spend the rest of the race trying to make up. This was made more difficult by the course being tighter than it first appeared. Most of the time, trying to pass was made treacherous by lots of roots or required being a jerk by forcing someone over. I spent a lot of time sitting behind people in the tight spots because I didn't want to be a jerk.

In the end, I finished mid-pack (20th) which is way lower than I felt I should have. I suppose you could say 'That's Racing.' but, I have high expectations of myself, especially after finishing 6th a week prior in Elyria. You know you've had a bad day at the races when you don't want to hang out afterward and basically get changed to head home as soon as possible.

We had two other Orrville riders in the B-field, Aaron Hershberger and Mike Chapman. Congrats to Aaron on his 8th place finish. When Aaron came around me, I tried really hard to hang on his wheel but, he obviously had better legs (and probably a better mindset).

Next post: Day-2 (Trust me, it gets better.)

When your wife wins the sign sprint

2010-10-23T19:01:00.001-04:00

The other night, Lorena and I were out on a ride (I know, big surprise) and decided our cross bikes were more appropriate given some gravel roads on our route and wet roads from an earlier freak rainstorm. Coming back into Navarre at the end of the ride, there was an unspoken decision to sprint for the city limit sign on Elton Rd. I say "unspoken" because neither one of us talked about sprinting for the sign and it simply got faster and faster until we were both out of the saddle hammering.

Lorena was sitting in my draft with half a mile to go and I just kept gradually ramping up the speed. I finally dropped to my 12 with about 100 meters to go, got in the drops, and out of the saddle. I heard Lorena shift and the sound of her tires let me know she was sprinting too. We were both going as hard as we could and I was out of gear. Lorena came out of my draft and I think she got one more shift in as she was right beside me before beating me by about half a bike-length at the sign.

Anybody who has raced a bike knows the crazy mix of emotions that go through your mind as you're going full-tilt only to watch someone else pull away and it feels like there's nothing you can do about it, even in friendly competition. When it's your wife, there's an extra emotion thrown in and that's pride. Not in the sense that my pride was hurt, but in the sense of being proud that Lorena is strong enough to out-sprint me on occasion. It's not the first time she's beaten me in a sign sprint and probably won't be the last. As many of the guys in the Orrville B-group can attest, she keeps you on your toes because she'll sneak in ahead of you when you least suspect and it's too late to react.

The only excuse I can muster is that she had me out-geared. My new cranks only have a 46-tooth big ring while she has a 48. She also has an 11 on her cassette while I only have a 12. Oh yeah, and I probably had lower tire pressure and . . .

Are those footsteps I hear?...CRUNCH

2010-10-04T18:33:00.000-04:00

IMPORTANT: In case you haven't been paying attention for the last 50 years, football is a FULL-CONTACT SPORT.

I am so glad the Cleveland Browns have T.J. Ward as a safety. We need more players that can deliver hits like this. To all of the people whining that his hit on Cincinnati's Jordan Shipley was a "cheap-shot", if you can't take a hit, your job should never be a wide-receiver running crossing routes in the NFL. Shipley got strung out by Carson Palmer's pass and there was no way that T.J. Ward was going to be able to stop short of doing his job: keeping the other team from completing passes. Besides, he hit him with his shoulder and didn't lead with his helmet. Shipley just happened to be on the wrong end of the collision.

It's no wonder Cleveland had their eye on him at Oregon. He lit people up.

When Google Doesn't Guess Correctly

2010-10-03T17:28:00.001-04:00

The other day our Wii was glowing blue and I couldn't remember what that meant. So, I decided to use Google to figure it out and normally the instant search suggestions that Google makes while I'm typing are relevant if not exactly what I'm after. However, I was typing "Why is my Wii glowing blue?" and the VERY unexpected result below popped up before I could even finish "my":

Given the way Google ranks search results, I'm thinking a lot of people have gastrointestinal issues or are worried they're pregnant. Or both.

Incidentally, if your Wii is repeatedly glowing blue it means you have an email from Nintendo on your Wii that you should probably read. Talk about First-World problems. . .

2010 NE Ohio CX Series #3 - Kent State-Stark

2010-09-26T23:04:00.001-04:00

Yesterday, Lorena and I made the short trip over to North Canton to hit up the third race of the Northeast Ohio Cyclocross Series. It's the second year that Stark Velo has hosted the race on the Kent State-Stark campus. Last year, we raced in a downpour and the race was shortened due to lightning. This year, we had sunny skies and temps around 60F.

This would be my first cross race of the season after missing the first two while my ribs healed. I probably would have been fine to race at Wendy Park two weeks ago, but the two weeks prior to that were pretty light on training so, a) I didn't think I'd be as fast as I wanted to be and, b) I didn't want to disrupt the healing process by pushing it too hard, too soon. Since the Wendy Park race I've been back to my usual training schedule and feeling better all the time.

When we lined up to start, I was in the third row beside teammate Mike Chapman. With 46 racers in the B field, it was quite the bunch sprint to the first 180-degree turn and then things started to string out a little bit in the fairly long straight stretch thereafter. I was definitely back farther than I really wanted to be and not very happy with my start. To make things more interesting, I had one little near-crash before the first set of barriers but managed to save it. Good to get those things out of the way on the first lap, though.

The rest of the race I just kept trying to catch the person in front of me and with each catch I felt more motivated. I'm not going to say what song I had going through my head most of the race, but it kept me focused and I was able to catch and pass most of the riders I wanted to beat. In the end, I finished 11th and definitely didn't feel like I'd left anything out on the course. Sure, there were times where I might have been able to pass someone if I'd not taken the line where I got cut off, but that's racing. To be able to keep moving up the entire race was definitely some good affirmation about the progress of my training. The competition was definitely close the entire race as the time span between 6th and 15th places was about 58 seconds. The eventual winner left us in his dust by around 3 minutes.

In the Women's Open race, Lorena rode strong and finished 4th and in the lead group of women that rode the same number of laps as the men. Those top 4 are some fast females!

Looks like the next race we'll be attending will be the October 24th race in Elyria. We have to make our annual fall pilgrimage to Michigan to ride mountain bikes and that happens to coincide with the next CX series race. That month will fly right by.

Before I forget, major props to Aaron Hershberger of the OCC for winning the C-race in his first-ever cyclocross race. Not a bad way to start. Also, major thanks to Stark Velo for once again putting on a great race. The post-race food is certainly appreciated.

NE Ohio CX Series #2 - Wendy Park Photos

2010-09-19T21:58:00.003-04:00

I know it was a week ago, but I finally got the time to upload my photos from the race. Unfortunately, the battery died before the A-race so the photos are mainly of the B, C, Women's, and Juniors races.

Lorena competed in the Women's Open race and got 6th. I was still nursing some sore ribs and sat this one out. Wendy Park is such a great race venue and it was a bit of a bummer to miss another race. On the plus side, the ribs are doing great and I'll be back in action at Kent-Stark next weekend. TOTALLY looking forward to it.

Enjoy!

Sometimes, Pain Threshold Doesn't Matter

2010-09-05T12:51:00.001-04:00

My pain threshold is generally pretty high. At least I feel like most of the time I can push through the pain that comes with training and racing. The last two of weeks has seen that threshold challenged pretty intensely as a result of a mountain bike crash at Mohican State Park. Let's just say that your ribs are not the best part of your body to absorb the impact of a crash. I don't know if I actually broke any ribs, but even if they weren't broken, I know from previous experience there's not much you can do to speed up the healing process. Time is the primary factor combined with taking it easy.

Anyone who's been reading this lately knows that cyclocross is my primary focus right now and the first race of the season was yesterday. I've been really psyched up for cross and have been training pretty hard for it. Sadly, I decided not to go because my ribs aren't completely healed. Hell, it still hurts to cough or sneeze and it's pretty much my own fault. Part of me is kicking myself for continuing training since the crash even though I wasn't healed. There was definitely additional pain during those training rides and runs, but I just pushed through it. At the end of the first week I was actually feeling better, but Monday I tweaked something during a ride that almost made me call Lorena to come get me. I noticed EVERY little bump in the road on the way home. The rest of the week I wised up and took it easy, but it was too little too late.

I suppose it's like training when you're sick. Sometimes you just have to listen to your body and rest. That's a hard thing to do when you feel like your fitness is improving and a race is just around the corner. Thank goodness this coming week was a scheduled rest week and I can get myself back to 100%. Perhaps I need to pull my dumbass threshold back a little, eh?

Further motivation

2010-08-28T08:13:00.001-04:00

I watched this video the other morning while eating breakfast after finishing my run. Yes, I know, it doesn't get much nerdier than watching cyclocross while eating breakfast. However, this is a video of the last couple of laps at one of last year's World Cup cross races in Kalmthout, Belgium and is an amazing performance by pro cyclocrosser Sven Nys. We've raced in conditions like this before and knowing what that's like makes how fast these guys are going even more awesome.

My favorite part is at about 3:45 into the video. Watch the spectators at about that time. I suppose that in the U.S. you have to live in Portland to have that many spectators at a cross race let alone ones crazy enough to come out in the snowy conditions. Then again, the Belgian fans have gin to take some of the edge off their crazy.

Thanks to Mad Alchemy for sharing this on Twitter. I just bought some of Mad Alchemy's warming embrocation and now we just need some cool weather so I can try it out.

The first cross race in northeast Ohio is next weekend! Just in case it isn't obvious, cyclocross season is my favorite time of year.

This is why we do it

2010-08-22T13:54:00.001-04:00

Even if I wanted to, I couldn't help smiling after reading this recent Cyclocross Magazine article by Lee Waldman. Especially this paragraph:

The most important thing about cyclocross racers is that they are demented! Why else would they spend so much time carrying a perfectly rideable $2,000.00 bike if they weren't? They love the pain and suffering. Smiling through the dirt, they laugh at the squeaky-clean roadies. They survive summer, wish for winter, anticipate autumn. But, the most important thing about cyclocrossers is that they are demented.

I'd say that nicely sums up why we're out running at 6:15AM before work and then hit the bike for another workout after we get home from work. All for the glory that is cyclocross, a.k.a. - competitive dementia.

2010 Smith Dairy Milk Race Photos

2010-08-19T22:49:00.000-04:00

I opted to marshal a corner for this year's edition of the Milk Race so that Lorena could have a chance to race. The standing club rule is that you can race if you provide someone to take your place as a volunteer. It's only fair and I had raced the previous weekend at Zoar while Lorena was working.

Since my portion of the corner that Mr. Feeman and I were covering saw very light traffic, I took the opportunity to capture a few moments of the race with my camera.

Mr. Grimm also got quite a few good shots:

Click Here For the Album

Great weather and a great turnout. Big thanks to everyone who volunteered and/or came out to race. Lorena got 8th in the Women's race, but I'll let her tell the story of how it unfolded. I've already read lots of other peoples' interesting stories of how strategies did/didn't work. It's just another reason racing is a lot of fun.

Especially cyclocross racing... which is just around the corner.

2010 Zoar Road Race Write-Up

2010-08-08T17:17:00.000-04:00

Today, I raced at the annual Zoar Road Race that Stark Velo hosts in Zoar, OH. The race is on roads that Lorena and I are fairly familiar with because we ride in that area often on our normal routes. Unfortunately, Lorena had to work today and so she didn't get to share in the self-induced pain that is bike racing.

We had about a .7 mile neutral roll out of Zoar to the "official" start with a fairly large Cat 3/4 group. The first lap wasn't ridiculously hard despite the two climbs and I was still feeling good. A couple of riders tried to form a break on the second lap, but they were caught on the second climb of the lap. On the descent back down to the finish line to start our third lap, I hit a small rock with my front wheel as we were going about 35 mph. It made my front wheel go a little squirrelly, but thankfully, nothing more. Bill Buckwalter was right beside me and he told me after the race that he wondered what I'd hit. Unfortunately for me, it caused a pinch-flat in my front wheel and I had to stop and fix it.

I changed the tube in what seemed like record-time and began my chase knowing that it might be futile. Our average speed for the first couple of laps was over 22mph and Bill had 22.7mph as an average speed for the entire race. So, I chased for the remaining 20 miles and never caught the group. The gap was pretty much the time it took me to fix the flat. The biggest bummer was that I was feeling really good at the time of the flat and was pretty optimistic about the second half of the race. On the flip-side, that's racing. I'll just chalk this up as a bit of an expensive training ride.

I mapped the course out on MapMyRide.com with all four laps. The elevation profile is hilarious.

Zoar Road Race Course - Cat 3/4 (4 laps)
Find more Cycling Routes / Bike Rides in Bolivar, OH ;

Once again, Stark Velo did one hell of a job putting this race on and a bonus for providing sandwiches, chips, and cookies from Subway (albeit, one of their sponsors) after the race. Even if you don't have a very good race, getting fed afterward makes that entry fee go down a little easier.

Up next weekend, the annual Smith Dairy Milk Race in Orrville.

The best laid plans...

2010-07-25T22:06:00.001-04:00

(Author's note: If you just want to get to the pretty pictures, scroll down... you'll just miss out on the rest of the story.)

On Saturday, the weather in our little portion of northeast Ohio pretty much covered the entire spectrum (sans snow). It started out very docile at 6:30AM as Lorena's dad and I hit the old fishin' hole. There was virtually no wind, the temperature was around 70F, and the Sun hadn't gotten high enough in the sky to bake us as was forecast for the rest of the day. It only took a couple of hours before the heat and humidity became noticeable and so we headed headed home. (Fisherman's bragging point: I caught a bass on my first cast. I don't remember the last time I managed that.)

Despite the doomsday heat-index predictions, I spent the latter part of the morning getting a couple of loads of mulch for the back yard. Sure, it was warm out, but I at least had a breeze and was working in the shade. Upon returning Lorena's dad's truck around 12:30, a random dark cloud passed over the area and it rained for 3 seconds. It had been a little cloudy all morning and storms were also predicted, but I expected something a little more substantial. The rest of the afternoon was breezy and I got the mulch spread before heading back into the house to literally chill-out in the A/C for a few hours prior to riding up to Ernie's Bike Shop to ride home with Lorena. Let's just say the A/C felt extra-nice when I first walked in the house as I was soaked, head-to-toe, in sweat.

The ride to Ernie's showed off just how "breezy" it had been all afternoon with tree limbs of various sizes on the ground. Some had already been moved and some I had to move myself. For the rest of the ride to the shop and on the return trip with Lorena, there was nothing more menacing than the simple fact that it was hot. Lorena suggested we return to the bike shop after dinner for the Moonlight Canoe trip on the Tuscarawas River. Ernie's also runs a canoe livery because the shop is right on the Tuscarawas and has the Moonlight Canoe trips a few times a year.

After dinner, we checked the radar to make sure no random thunderstorms or rain would interfere with canoeing. A very narrow line of storms was moving West to East and looked like they might stay far enough North to not foil our plans. We decided to risk it and drove back to Ernie's. The closer we got, the darker the northern sky looked and we began to wonder if we were actually going to end up in a boat after all. Let's just say, the sky went from bad to worse and everyone was basically standing around waiting to see if it would just blow over. At least we had something interesting to look at because the sky turned all sorts of colors and shapes:

The photos really don't do justice to how creepy the situation was. Clouds were moving in all different directions and we briefly heard the area was under a tornado warning. I don't doubt it. Through all of the sinister clouds, there was no rain and not even any real lightning or thunder. That is to say, until about 20 minutes later when all hell broke loose with the previously absent rain, thunder, and lightning. It's almost as if the leading edge of the storm looked worse than the back edge where the real deal was waiting to pounce. It nearly rained sideways and we all retreated to the porch of the bike shop with our canoeing plans pretty much scrapped. We made the best of a bad situation by simply moving the party that was supposed to happen after the trip to the wonderfully dry porch. Unfortunately, a few canoes were on the river through all of this and they were drowned rats when they made it back to the landing right in the middle of the worst of the rain. Their spirits certainly weren't dampened as they laughed while telling their harrowing tale and kept the cameras flashing to capture the memorable event.

Sure, we can go canoeing just about any day, and there will be at least one more chance for us to partake in a Moonlight Canoe this year, but I'd say these busted plans became an adventure just the same.

Technology Used Against Itself

2010-07-17T16:10:00.002-04:00

Lorena and I laughed until we cried after watching this. I wonder if the developer of Talking Carl ever considered this happening?

The Morning Commute

2010-07-03T17:08:00.002-04:00

Rode to work with Lorena this morning and then hit up some more miles after she got to the bike shop. Here's the result of a little fun with the camera at the beginning of the ride.

The Morning Commute from Chris Huck on Vimeo.

Livin' the good life

2010-06-19T15:16:00.000-04:00

Sometimes there just aren't enough hours in a day to accomplish everything you want to do. Even if there were, we'd find ways to fill that time too. The nice weather of late has kept us busy outdoors and is largely responsible for lack of posts here. Rest assured, we've been getting in our fair share of riding bikes, drinking beer and coffee, eating good food, and general merry-making when not at work or doing the stupid things like mowing the lawn. It's nearly competitive in our neighborhood... We're shooting for last place.

Here are some shots from a recent excursion (by bike, of course) to The Wilderness Center near Wilmot, OH:

Good times.

Always have a backup plan

2010-05-30T21:54:00.000-04:00

When I went out for a ride on my singlespeed mountain bike on Thursday, little did I know what I was in for. It wasn't going to be a long ride and not at a terribly intense pace as a recovery from Wednesday night's thrashing. I hit up some local trails near Navarre (some of you know where they are) and was on my way home when I broke my chain just as I reached the top of a short, steep climb.

Sure, it was a bummer, but I had my multi-tool and proceeded to start fixing it. I removed the broken link and reconnected the chain within minutes. No worries, right? Sure enough, when I went to put the wheel back on, the chain was too short. Thinking that perhaps the tensioner was the problem, I decided to take it out of the system and only wrap the chainring and cog. My thinking being that, even if the the chain was a little too long, I could still ride it. Needless to say, the chain was still too short for that arrangement to work. I only removed one link!

Now I'm wondering what the heck I'm going to do given that I have at least 6 miles to get home and I'm on a bit of a deadline for making dinner plans later that evening. Back when I built my singlespeed, I used primarily spare parts and so there are a bunch of cassette spacers on the hub to properly align the single cog with the chainring. Well, I ran out of cassette spacers while putting the wheel together and used an old 12-tooth cog as my final spacer before the lock ring. Sure, it looked goofy, but it got the job done.

Since the 12-tooth cog is smaller in diameter than the 20-tooth cog the chain is supposed to run on, I figured I could take a chance and route the chain over the 12-tooth and through the tensioner to limp home. My biggest concern was how well the chain would stay on the chainring considering how bad this made the chain line. Well, it worked, but that's a qualified "worked".

I probably dropped my chain five times on the way home, but found that as long as I didn't go over too bumpy of terrain and kept nice, steady pressure on the pedals, the chain would stay on fairly well. Well enough to get home, at least. The moral of today's story:

Always have at least two speeds on your single speed.

With that in mind, I might move the smaller cog a little closer to the bigger cog to help chain line should I need to do this again... That said, perhaps a frame with horizontal dropouts would be the more proper, although more expensive, solution.

What I Saw on My Ride Today: May 15th, 2010 and more...

2010-05-29T15:38:00.001-04:00

It's been a little while since the last post and I suppose that's indicative of being outside even more with the nice weather.

Here's a bunch of photos I took while on a 3.5hr ride down near Dundee, OH on May 15th. I eventually looped up to meet up with Lorena when she got off work at the bike shop. Hit a lot of roads I'd never been on before. Always fun.

Last weekend we went to Mohican State Park to ride the mountain bike trails down there. It was a little muddier than we anticipated and so led to some bike cleaning (improved by beer drinking) afterward. Little did I know that I'd be busting up a concrete slab later on that evening... (more on that later).

What I Saw on My Ride Today: May 14th, 2010

2010-05-16T09:58:00.001-04:00

On Friday there was a night ride from Ernie's Bike Shop in Massillon. We left at 8:38PM heading north to Canal Fulton on the Towpath. Once there, we waited for everyone to arrive and then proceeded to head back south on the Muskingum Trail that's on the other side of the Tuscarawas River. It was a pretty nice turnout with riders of all levels. For a casual ride, the pace wasn't exactly slouching. I blame Joe for setting the precedent by cranking it up at the beginning...

Just a few shots I took while cruising:

Lorena and I rode up to the shop from Navarre and therefore had to ride home afterward putting us home near 11PM. There's nothing quite like the Towpath at night. You really do have it all to yourself.

Still unknown after all these years

2010-05-11T20:50:00.001-04:00

I've played around with Wolfram Alpha in the past and it is truly an amazing piece of technology. Simply type in the name of where you live and get more information than you may have bargained for. Alternately, you may want to use it for its stronger suit, math. Apparently the people at Wolfram must be geeks like me based on their similar sense of humor.

What I Saw on My Ride Today: April 24th, 2010

2010-04-25T20:07:00.001-04:00

Special bonus points if you can tell me where this photo was taken:

What started out as a planned 2-hour ride on the cross bike turned into a 3-hour jaunt of which the last 1hr15min was in the rain. I was probably within 20 minutes of the house on the way in when I felt a few sprinkles. Not sure if I really intended to put on my arm warmers, but I reached back to that jersey pocket and discovered they weren't there. So, I turned around and started backtracking my route and discovered them 40 minutes later laying on the road at nearly the furthest point out. The rain had been a lot more than a sprinkle for at least 10 minutes. Let's just say I was a kind of a drowned rat when I rolled in to the house. Despite being wet, at least I wasn't cold from having nearly time-trialed back to the house because I was worried about being late picking Lorena up from work. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?

"I think I'm going to be sick."

2010-04-18T11:05:00.004-04:00

So, as you can see, this was not a great way to start a morning. Lorena's iPod Touch fell out of her jacket pocket, hit the basement stairs, and then hit the concrete basement floor resulting in the above damage. Interestingly, the glass screen was all that broke and not the underlying LCD. You could still press the Home button and the screen would light up, but you couldn't unlock it using the slider. While it was a positive sign, the iPod was still rendered useless.

Well, we called Apple about getting it repaired and, let me just say, Apple's customer service is simply great. I've only had to call them a couple of times and, in both cases, the people I talked to were extremely helpful and friendly. In this case, they gave us the option of having them replace the iPod or they could suggest a 3rd-party to replace just the glass part of the screen.

We figured that having it replaced would be better because it's not much more expensive and we wouldn't have to worry about other internal electronics failing later due to damage from the impact. Basically, we end up paying half-price for a brand-new replacement unit that will also have the custom engraving on the back. We also end up paying only $12 for OVERNIGHT FedEx shipping both ways. Apple also sent us, OVERNIGHT mind you, a prepaid FedEx box with all of the necessary foam to pack the broken iPod in for shipment back to them. They won't ship the new iPod until they receive the old one but, the whole process will likely take less than 7 business days. It happened on Thursday and I'll bet we have the new one by Wednesday.

Many companies would do well to take some notes from Apple in this department. Make your customers happy and they will continue to buy your products.

That said, I sincerely hope "happy" is not the word that describes how KFC's customers feel after eating the new Double Down "sandwich":

KFC Double Down

I personally love Merlin Mann's take on this:

A new brown think you'll totally eat

One of my favorite parts:

The game really changed on the day we realized you wouldn’t blink twice at the idea of a junior high dropout mixing breaded chicken, jug gravy, frozen corn, and a rudimentary ecru paste of modified potato starches and salted oil—all in the same fucking death-black wading pool. You’d eat that. On purpose. With a large Mountain Dew and a fucking “parfait.”

Brilliant.

And Lorena said she was going to be sick after dropping the iPod. I'm thinking "sick" would be a light sentence for being an accomplice in KFC's gastronomic crime.

Willfull Ignorance

2010-04-12T22:17:00.006-04:00

After listening to this episode of This American Life, I'm not really sure I can feel sorry for GM and it makes me a little more annoyed they got bailed out by all of us. They had an opportunity to be better and blew it off for 20 years. Having worked for an automotive supplier in college and seen the abuses of the UAW, I understand how GM isn't totally to blame for their demise. However, after hearing the other side of the story, the people at the top were almost willfully ignorant.

NUMMI (Click here and then click "Stream Episode" to listen)

Take an hour out of your day and give this a listen. This story is a huge reminder of why I love This American Life.

What I Saw on My Ride Today: April 10th, 2010

2010-04-11T10:26:00.000-04:00

Turtles sunning themselves (among other things) in the Erie Canal near Navarre:

Water over the dam in the Tuscarawas River in Massillon near Ernie's Bike Shop:

What I Saw (and Heard) on My Ride Today - April 6th, 2010

2010-04-06T22:17:00.003-04:00

I rode up to Massillon to ride home with Lorena after she got off work at Ernie's Bike Shop. As we got closer to Navarre, the peepers were REALLY LOUD. It's definitely one of the many benefits of commuting by bicycle. There's nothing quite like cruising down the Towpath at night surrounded by the sound of nothing but Nature.

Something to do on a rainy Sunday

2010-03-28T16:17:00.002-04:00

Redesign your blog. I've been on a bit of an HTML programming kick lately so I figured, why not? If it wasn't abundantly clear what a dork I am, there should be no question now.

iPhone/iPod Touch Game Review: Stinger Table Hockey

2010-03-23T20:14:00.001-04:00

Recent bouts with the flu and head colds have given me more free time than normal and so I started playing around with games on my iPod Touch. I don't really play games on the iPod because the free games never seem to be that good and I haven't really felt like spending a lot of money on the "not free" games even if they looked good. Given the circumstances, I figured a few bucks here and there might be worth it to help get through the sick period.

I don't really recall where I first saw Stinger Table Hockey in the App Store, but I suspect it may have been in the "New and Noteworthy" section on the front page. My initial hope was that it might be an implementation of the table-top hockey game I remember always wanting as a kid (though we never had one) and that was enough to make me click through. Sure enough, this is exactly what it is. After reading several of the positive reviews and looking at YouTube video posted on the game's website (and below), I figured it was worth $1.99 to take a chance on what looked like a very fun game.

Graphics:

This was the first thing that impressed me. Keep in mind, we're talking about a freaking iPod here, not a Playstation. It's fun just to watch the demo game that plays when you launch the app even though the level of detail in the players reminds me of EA NHL 2001 on my PS1. For this small of a screen, the level of detail is plenty good enough. Less complexity = faster speed and I believe that's a requirement in this game where a lot of calculations have to be done regarding puck physics and dealing with user-input i.e. moving multiple players (player and AI) around. You don't really miss the detail because you're too worried about controlling the puck. Which brings me to...

Gameplay:

Moving players around and controlling the puck takes a little getting used to. The controls are actually fairly close to the control rods of real-life table hockey (push-pull and rotate) though they can be unpredictable and a little frustrating at times. Remember, those control rods weren't perfect either. There is a tutorial in the beginning that explains the controls and playing the Skills Games certainly helps you learn what works and what doesn't. The hardest thing to do control-wise is move two players simultaneously and getting the timing down for a one-timer. When it does work, passing from a wing man to the center for a successful one-timer is a glorious thing.

Games typically last 5-7 minutes depending on whether you have to play overtime. If you aren't paying attention to the game clock it will automatically roll over into OT where it's basically sudden death. The worst is when the CPU scores with mere seconds left and what seemed like a sure win now becomes an overtime stress-fest.

AI

In addition to creating your own teams, there are 38 international teams that you can play against. Having played several games against many of these teams, I can honestly say that some teams are way better than others. Predictably, countries most known as hockey powerhouses have the best teams. Try taking on the USA, Canada, or Finland and you will more often get your butt handed to you, even on 'easy' mode. Alternately, if you play against Great Britain, you can almost expect to win. It is possible to beat the 'good' teams. It just takes practice like any other game. There are the occasional 'lucky' goals for both sides and I believe that's just a part of table hockey whether real or virtual. I don't think the AI cheats as some might suggest.

Skills Games:

While these little games are fun in-and-of-themselves, they are also good for improving your ability to score in an actual game. I don't really like the Hardest Shot game, but the Sniper and Shootout do help with shooting accuracy.

Stats:

The game records quite a few stats as shown below.

My record isn't all that impressive when you look at outright wins/losses. I guess I'm "scrappy" enough to force a lot of games to overtime. I apparently also play a lot of defense since the AI also has WAY more shots (and goals) than me. My only wish in the stats is for OT wins to be counted as overall wins instead of the separate categories.

Customization

There are almost too many options in this game. To name a few, you can:

Create your own team(s)
Modify multiple colors of their uniforms
Modify the team logo using photos from the photo library on the iPod
Change the layout of the hockey rink
Change the physics of the puck to make it more sticky, bouncy, etc...

The team editor alone is impressive. As a homage to an Ohio high school, here is my team. "The Wad":

Conclusion:

Stinger Table Hockey is a really fun iPhone/iPod Touch game at a really good price. I've gotten a lot more enjoyment out of this little game than a lot of console games that cost 10 times more. It's a really solid game from a developer with only two games in the App Store. Compared to the other "hockey" games in there, this is by far the best.

Give it a shot. (Get it?) I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Disclaimer: This review reflects only my opinions regarding Stinger Table Hockey and has been in no way influenced by the developer, Stinger Games. The game was bought and paid for by me and I simply find it good enough to write a review that recommends others go out and buy it as well. Additionally, all photos used in this post were taken directly from my iPod Touch unless otherwise specified.

Keep your stick on the ice

2010-03-21T21:58:00.000-04:00

As a bit of a preview for what will likely be the next post, I present the following video of some mad hand-eye coordination.

Note: This is not MY hand-eye coordination.

Germ City

2010-03-12T20:41:00.001-05:00

The last three weeks have not been the most fun from a health standpoint. Two of those three weeks have seen me taken down by the flu, Lorena kind of torn down with a cold, and now I've got a cold as well. In my case, it also didn't help that one of the guys at work has also been hacking with a cold. It should come as no surprise that others at work are now sick too. Yay.

As a result, training rides have been on the down-low the last three weeks. With the weather warming up, it's especially a bummer. Riding to work is just enough to keep from going insane.

With not much bike-related to write about, I do have a couple of posts that I'm working on that are tech-related as I've had the spare time to actually play with these things. One is especially geeky but, in our house, "geek" is a term of endearment.

Whirlwind

2010-03-02T21:54:00.002-05:00

It's been a couple of weeks since the last post and we've certainly been up to a lot in that time. Seems like every time I'd sit down to write I'd get off on some other tangent and then it wouldn't happen. Then, there was the three days I was sick last week that I didn't do much but watch "The Deadliest Catch" on Netflix. Thankfully, that's over and I'm resuming regular life.

This past weekend, Lorena and I went to Louisville, KY so that I could attend the Pumper Show which is a trade show for water and environmental related products. Since the company I work for makes products for ultra-high pressure water, this was a good opportunity for me to see what our competition makes and meet some of the top people in our industry. It was a bit of a whirlwind trip since we left Saturday morning and came back on Sunday.

While I was at the show, Lorena had a whole list of places in Louisville she wanted to check out. After the show was over, we hung out in some cool little neighborhoods checking out local bike shops and grabbing some good food. One of the cooler places we went was called the Cycler's Cafe.

Cycler's Cafe, as you might expect, is a mix between a bike shop and a cafe. The bike shop section only occupied about 1/3 of the total space but the atmosphere was really cool. They had several good beers and make an excellent barbeque sandwich with potato salad. A cool place to hang out after a group ride for sure.

For dinner we went to O'Shea's Irish Pub in the Highlands neighborhood. They have a ridiculously good beer selection and a 5-pound hamburger on the menu. As I recall, you get a t-shirt for eating it... Beer-wise, I had a Bell's beer that I'd never heard of called Hell Hath No Fury. If you get the opportunity to drink this beer, do it. Simply fantastic.

Going back a weekend, we had a chance to go ice fishing on Lorena's aunt's pond. Lorena, her dad, Marty, and myself carried our gear back the 0.3 miles from the road to the pond since the driveway was snowed-in. This was the first time I'd ever been ice fishing and let's just say our luck wasn't the greatest. In the couple of hours we spent back there, we only caught 3 fish and the ones we caught could almost have been used for bait. Photos from the excursion are up on Flickr.

People are amazing

2010-02-12T18:35:00.007-05:00

Via a couple of blogs we read, that is, Kottke.org and Craft Magazine, we came across these totally amazing videos.

First, papercraft is simply amazing and so is stop-motion animation (see Coraline). Combine the two and you have the following:

Second, math can be beautiful. And not just for the obvious reasons... Fractals are really cool mathematical visualizations and the example below is no exception. It's basically a plot of a Mandelbrot fractal that is being continuously being zoomed in on. I've written programs to produce small Mandelbrot fractals and it's truly awesome how they seemingly go on forever repeating themselves. As Mr. Kottke suggested, the video is better in HD and full screen.

Mandelbrot Fractal Set Trip To e214 HD from teamfresh on Vimeo.

The fact that people thought to create either of these things is amazing and makes me want to go create something just as cool.

Be careful what you wish for

2010-02-08T22:34:00.003-05:00

Up until last Friday, Lorena and I had been complaining a little bit about the fact that we bought cross-country skis and then the weather turned "warm". Hell, the day we bought them it was 40 degrees and raining. Well, I think our complaints made it through to the right people and, boy, did they ever rectify the situation...

All of you in NE Ohio undoubtedly have been dealing with the roughly 12-inch (some places more) blanket of snow that was dumped on us starting Friday afternoon and continuing on into Saturday. After getting home from work on Friday, I shoveled twice just to hopefully make Saturday's work easier. It was basically just an exercise in exercise as the amount of snow Lorena and I shoveled on Saturday was, simply, A LOT.

Around this time a couple of years ago we had a similar amount of snow in Moscow, ID that shut down the university and, frankly, the town. The snow piles we had in front of our house then were only around 5-feet tall, but that was just from our sidewalk. The pile above is 6-feet tall and that only accounts for about 2/3 of the snow from the driveway. The rest is in the yard at the other end. Even better, it was WET snow and so there was no shoving it around. It was all scoop-carry-throw. Mind you, I'm not complaining about shoveling. I'm likely in the minority of those that actually enjoy it. The best part is that our neighbors are fantastic and shovel their sidewalks too. It's totally amazing how clear sidewalks make it easier to walk around the town you live in...

And speaking of walking...

Since we wished for snow to ski in, we walked the whopping 1/2-mile down to the Towpath with our skis on Sunday to enjoy that which we wished for. Some people, and maybe some on horseback, had been on the Towpath before us, but it was almost like we had it all to ourselves. We headed south and only saw one other person who was out hiking. Making our way through the deep snow was pretty challenging, but it was worth it knowing that the return trip would be easier with our tracks already established. In fact, it was surprising how much more quickly we made the return trip compared how long it took us to reach the turn-around point.

All in all, it was a good workout and another fun way to enjoy the outdoors in winter. I know I'd much rather be on skis at 25-degrees than on my road bike. It also beats the hell out of riding the trainer/rollers in the basement.

We've got a lot of photos from our little skiing excursion, they're just still on the cameras. We'll see if we have time to upload them after digging out from the next storm-of-the-century-of-the-week that's supposed to hit us tomorrow. At this rate, skiing to work might be a viable option...

Here are photos we took just around the house.

A Victory for Intelligence

2010-01-30T10:24:00.001-05:00

If you didn't see it in the Cleveland Plain Dealer on Monday, January 25th, there was an article indicating that the Ohio Turnpike Commission (OTC) made an intelligent decision. Click below for Karen Farkas' article:

"Ohio Turnpike Commission reverses itself on higher tolls for bicycles or luggage on roof"

They have changed their toll policy for passenger vehicles with non-permanent items on their roof (such as bikes, luggage racks, skis, etc...) back to the way it was before. That is to say, you'll pay the same toll as if you didn't have anything on the roof. (Qualifier: if your vehicle is normally shorter than 7ft 6in)

Toll booth workers now have the ability (again) to assess the proper toll despite what the ticket you're given (based on an automated height scan) upon entering the Turnpike indicates. Honestly, this is how it should be so long as the OTC is using height as a means to assess vehicle class. Until they change their automated system for determining vehicle class to something that makes sense (like weight), they're going to need human intelligence as part of the loop. I'll take this small victory and simply thank the OTC for coming to their senses. No need to go off on a tangent here about how I feel about their toll assessment system. I've already written about that in a post that is partly responsible for this positive outcome. You can read it here.

In the end, the money you'll save on tolls can now be applied towards a down payment on those overpriced service plaza Whoppers...

Further proof...

2010-01-21T19:14:00.003-05:00

...that you can never have too many bicycles. Enter, our basement.

There are still plenty more walls to fill up... all in good time.

Never thought it would be front-page material...

2010-01-18T22:12:00.003-05:00

I suppose this could be labeled as a bit of self-promotion, but our little blog got some recognition this last week in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Now, our blog isn't mentioned specifically in so much as I'm quoted in an article about the messed up toll system on the Ohio Turnpike that I wrote about in a post a few months ago. Reporter Karen Farkas of the Plain Dealer contacted me because she came across my blog post while doing research for the story she was doing about the Turnpike and wanted some more information.

We thought it was a pretty good article and I hope it makes people realize what a terrible system exists for charging tolls on the Ohio Turnpike. I'm certain we're not the only ones that have been charged a bogus toll.

The comments below the article on the Plain Dealer site are mostly pretty good if you ignore some of the digression into anti-tax complaining. There were two that I found particularly poignant:

Posted by sjosephs January 13, 2010, 11:44AM "Turnpike Executive Director George Distel said Tuesday that he is trying to remedy the situation." Hey George....how about you and the genius' who thought this up, suspend the program until it is fixed or you DON'T get paid your salary until it is rectifide. We need to light a fire under idiots like these. Make it hurt financially, and watch how fast things get done.

and

skisaver Posted by cantskienough January 13, 2010, 8:07PM As an owner of an Expedition with a ski pod that has been measured by a licensed surveyor (at 7'-4 1/2") at OTC's recommendation, I have been given toll tickets 4 times in the last 2 days for Class 1. In the same time period the Rt 75 toll booth has given me tickets for Class 2 twice. Class action lawsuit anyone?

Let the Ohio Turnpike Commission know that you think their system is ridiculous.

Phone: 1-88-TURNPIKE (1-888-876-7453)
MAIN PHONE NUMBER:
(440) 234-2081
Customer Service
Requests/Questions/Concerns
Ext. 1172

What I Saw On My Ride Today 1/8 & 1/9

2010-01-10T22:02:00.002-05:00

Though I ride to work pretty much every day, most of my training rides since the first of the year have afforded me this view. As a rule, don't watch stand-up comedy whilst on the trainer. Sometimes you just have to learn the hard way.

Planning for the new year

2009-12-29T21:56:00.002-05:00

I would be lying if I said that nothing has been going on in our little world since the last post because it has been entirely the opposite. There's nothing quite like moving into a new house, trying to get things situated, painting, working on Christmas presents and everything holiday related, and squeaking some rides in all the while working (A LOT) and doing the regular everyday life stuff. Since riding has been a bit on the back burner, there hasn't been a lot to write about in that regard other than our commuting rides have been "interesting" to say the least. The 6 inches of snow we've gotten since Sunday has made the roads a little dicey in the mornings but, they're usually not that bad for the ride home. A couple my co-workers think I'm nuts for riding in this weather. That's not unexpected. On the other hand, another of my co-workers told me Monday morning that I'm officially "hardcore" for riding in the then 4" of snow and temps in the low 20's. He's a burly dude that rides a Harley in 30F weather so I'll take that as a compliment.

In the meantime, I'm working on my training schedule for next year. The last few weeks of mainly maintenance rides to keep loose have been a nice break from the intensity of cyclocross season but, January 1st is only a few days away and the hammer gets dropped. Indoor training (hopefully not as necessary as last year) will be a lot easier now that we have a basement again and a lot more space. As usual, I'm looking forward to another year of racing and I hope to do more than I did in 2009. We'll just have to wait and see how things go.

Until next time, I hope everyone had a good Christmas and has a Happy New Year. As for me, I'm going to return to enjoying one of my Christmas presents. Tasty.

Never a good time to get sick

2009-12-06T19:56:00.003-05:00

Alas, it's Sunday evening and, unfortunately, I'm not writing about how my cross race went today. It probably goes without saying that I didn't race and I'm a little bummed about that. On the other hand, it's not all bad as we made the most of it. My parents came up to see our new house, help us move a few things, and generally hang out. It was a day to make lemonade out of lemons.

Last Sunday evening I started to get a sore throat after riding up to Ernie's Bike Shop in Massillon to ride home with Lorena when she got off from work. Temps were in the high-30's/low-40's and a little windy. So, I dressed for those conditions and was comfortable on the way up. I don't think either of us planned on rain, but as we got into Navarre, rain started to fall. We only had a few miles to go and, naturally, we got stopped by both of the two traffic lights we encounter on our route. While I normally relish the thought of drivers thinking I'm insane for riding in inclement weather, I wasn't exactly happy about getting wet when it's that cold. Particularly since I wasn't really dressed for wet weather.

As the week progressed, the sore throat turned into sinus congestion, coughing, sneezing, and general suckiness. I rode to work on Monday and Lorena had to take me in the rest of the week because I know that riding in the colder temps would likely hinder my recovery and I REALLY wanted to be able to race this weekend. It took until about Friday afternoon before I really felt better and, having not been on the bike all week, I decided that racing today would have been futile on many levels. I'd probably be disappointed in my performance and open myself up to getting sick again. As much fun as racing is, all of the riding to prepare for racing is just as much fun and I HATE not being able to ride. Aside from feeling terrible, not being able to ride is one of the most annoying things about being sick. Ironically, training for racing often puts us on the edge of illness, especially during cross season.

So, our racing year ends on a bit of a whimper. I'm fairly happy with my results for this cross season and, most importantly, I had a hell of a lot of fun. Training will likely be light the rest of this year since we have our new house to get in order and a big deadline at work that's keeping me very busy. Riding to work is almost a blessing in itself. I'm still sorting out what my racing goals are for next year and planning to train for them. January 1st will be here before we know it.

Bike Authority CX Series #8 - Kirtland Park

2009-11-27T21:32:00.003-05:00

Once again, here it is nearly a week after the fact and I'm just getting around to writing about last weekend's cyclocross race up in Cleveland. I can't even begin to describe how crazy-busy we are at work and, combining that with all of the other events of this week, not much time is left for the old Intertron.

I actually had a better race than I anticipated last Sunday. When I rode up to Ernie's Bike Shop to ride home with Lorena on Saturday, I wasn't so sure about how I was going to feel on Sunday. Since I missed races 5 and 6 in the series, I couldn't exactly miss another race lest I ruin my chances for a good finish in the overall series points. Going into Sunday's race I was sitting in 9th in the overall standings. Fortunately, I woke up feeling pretty good on Sunday and the weather couldn't have cooperated any better. It's hard to complain about racing in shorts and short sleeves in the middle of November.

The course they set up at Kirtland Park was awesome. We raced there back in 2003 and apparently there were a few races held there while we were in Idaho. No barriers, but a couple of sets of stairs to run up and a couple nice grunt climbs. There were sections of the course that made me glad I have mountain biking skills.

(Photo by Julie Sroka via Robert Sroka)

I started on the front row and, once again, had a little trouble getting my left foot clipped in as we barreled down the opening straightaway. I was still near the top 10 as we went into the first climb and then a few people suddenly forgot how to ride their bikes. The guy in front of me got stopped, I slammed my front tire into his cassette, and I'm sure I uttered some not-so-repeatable words about the situation. That certainly cost me a few places, but I managed to keep working my way up through people as the race wore on and finished in 12th place.

On the last couple of laps I knew I was lapping some other people. Right before the last run-up on the last lap I caught and passed a rider and didn't know if I was lapping him or not. Since I didn't know I decided to just go as hard as I could through the last few turns and got into a sprint finish. I think he beat me by a hair at the line, but I had no idea what place I was racing for and, damn it, even if he was a lapped rider you shouldn't leave anything out on the course anyway.

Based on the results that are posted over at TeamLakeEffect.net, I'm now in 7th place in the overall points if you take the top 6 finishes for every rider. I think the best I've ever placed is 5th in the overall for the Bike Authority Series and I believe that was for the 2005 series. Most certainly, I can't complain about how my cross season has gone and I guess this is just further proof that cyclocross racing is where I've had the most success. The Boughton Farm race is next Sunday and marks the end of the series. Here's to hoping I can crank it up one more time for the year.

As usual, many thanks to Bike Authority and Team Lake Effect for putting on such a fun cross series. Truly one of the highlights of the racing year in Northeast Ohio.

More photos via: Robert Sroka and Julie Sroka

Bike Authority CX Series #7 - Kent State

2009-11-18T21:23:00.002-05:00

There simply aren't enough hours in a day. That is why it's Wednesday evening and I'm just now getting around to an update about last Saturday's cyclocross race.

Saturday was race #7 in the Bike Authority Cyclocross Series and took place at the Kent State main campus. Major kudos go out to Kent State for allowing two cross races this season on two of their campuses. The weather was considerably better for this race than it was at the previous (link to previous write-up). In fact, it was warm enough to race in shorts and short sleeves. I most definitely didn't expect at 60F+ day in the middle of November. I also certainly cannot complain about a mud-free race after how many muddy races we've already been through.

The start was on gravel and was basically a sprint to a near 180-degree turn. Since part of the turn was on the gravel, all 55 of us in the B-race were trying to make the turn without crashing. This naturally led to some bumping of handlebars and probably a few expletives, though, I think we all made it through crash-free. Gravel in turns was a theme in this race and only really caused problems when groups of riders were trying to go through them. Once the race became more strung out, if you crashed in a gravelly turn, it was your own damned fault. Fortunately for me, I didn't crash once. (Does that mean I wasn't riding hard enough? You know the old adage... )

There was a nice singletrack section in the woods that featured two run-ups that were perhaps the best run-ups I've ever experienced in a cross race. The footing was good, the weren't too steep, and they weren't ridiculously long (unlike some we've done in the past). Maybe I was just feeling good, but I felt like I did the run-ups great every lap. I don't recall ever having that feeling before and I guess that is probably a compliment to the course designers for making the run-ups "fun".

Except for the first lap, I was only passed by one other rider and I passed him back on the last lap. On all of the other laps I was making up ground and passing other riders. I joked on Facebook that I need to abandon the Idaho Vandals football strategy of spotting the competition a gap and then try to make it up before the end. It's a marginal strategy at best and I really should just work on getting a better start.

For the day, I ended up in 14th place. I'm not too displeased with that considering it had been almost a month since my last race. Looking at the race results, I don't think anybody was going to catch the guy that won. What really caught my eye was how close the times were between places. Especially 8th-11th (5 seconds) and 12th-14th (5 seconds). I also found it interesting that there was about 1 minute between these groups. It felt closer than that during the race. Then again, things always seem a little different when oxygen debt is part of the equation...

Finally, there was a great turnout of spectators on such a nice day. You can thank a one Heath Brown for the photos and plenty of cowbell during the race. More importantly, I thank him for suggesting a post-race burrito at Taco Tontos. Hopefully, the weather will once again cooperate this Sunday for the next race in Cleveland. If you're not racing, come on out, ring some cowbells, cheer on a bunch of crazy cross racers, and maybe even offer up a bacon hand-up. You don't have to be a single-speeder to appreciate bacon.

Race Results

Robert Sroka's Race Photos

Beware the Bambis

2009-11-12T20:14:00.003-05:00

In light of my recent 'What I Saw On My Ride Today' posts, this one might be more aptly titled 'What I Almost Ran Into On My Ride Today'. Night riding after work has been pretty much the norm lately and the 'warm' temperatures during the day/early evening have certainly made those rides much better. We have pretty good light systems for riding at night and I'm often amazed at how far ahead they project. On the other hand, I don't know if, on tonight's ride, the battery was getting low or if there was some fog settling in the valley I was descending into. What I do know is that my light didn't project far enough ahead to prevent me from having to lock up my rear wheel and skid to avoid t-boning a deer that was standing in the middle of Lawndell Road.

I'm doubtful it was a premonition, but I actually had the thought 'You may want to not bomb down this hill because of how active the deer have been lately.' right as I started down the hill. Before seeing the deer that I almost hit, I actually caught a glimpse of one on the side of the road just as I saw the broad side of the one in the road. Even better, I heard another one on the left side of the road and had no idea whether it was going to come out and t-bone ME. Needless to say, it was an interesting experience that I don't really want to have again soon. It reminded me of photos I saw a few years ago from a road race where a rider or two were taken out by a deer crossing the road. I guess even daylight doesn't give you an advantage against those of the whitetail persuasion.

This is mostly just a friendly reminder to all our cycling (and driving) friends to watch out for deer after dark. At least here in rural Ohio. And while you're at it, keep an eye out for Amish buggies too. I saw 3 or 4 of them after dark tonight too and they were difficult to see as well. In most cases I heard them before I saw them. Be safe and keep all those wheels on the ground.

What I Saw On My Ride Today: 11/7/09

2009-11-09T18:00:00.004-05:00

The best part is, I wasn't even halfway into my ride when I took this photo. Got to love night rides on the cross bike.

What I Saw On My Ride(s) Today: 11/2/09

2009-11-02T22:03:00.004-05:00

The Frosty Morning Commute

The predominant view during my training ride. (Damn you Daylight Savings Time!)

The camera flash really lit things up. I had Lorena's new NiteRider Mi-Newt Mini light on there. I love how small the battery is and the simple mounting to the bars. It might throw a better beam than my Princeton Tec light but the Princeton Tec light has a longer run-time. I suppose you can't have everything...

Another way to be a 2nd class citizen

2009-10-30T21:37:00.002-04:00

This past weekend Lorena, Heath, and I went to Michigan to hang out with Marty and ride mountain bikes. We've made this trip numerous times before and the drive is usually not much to write about. To quote a famous movie line: "Ain't nothing to see on the interstate but interstate." (Bonus if you can name the movie!)

As we often do, we thought nothing of putting our mountain bikes on the roof of the car for the trip. That's how we get our bikes from place to place when we travel. The beauty of the roof rack is that the bikes don't have to be on a trunk rack that prevents easy access to gear in the back of the vehicle. On top of that, the bikes aren't in the "crush zone" should you get rear-ended. Most of you don't need me to extol the obvious benefits of roof racks. This weekend's trip did, however, make it obvious that the Ohio Turnpike Commission doesn't quite see roof racks for bikes/kayaks/canoes/luggage/etc... in the same way.

When we go to Ypsilanti, the Ohio Turnpike is certainly the easiest and fastest way to get there. We get on at Rt 8 or I-77 and get off at I-75. The toll would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $4. Not really a big deal. We don't mind paying a toll if it means the road is better maintained and that generally seems to be the case with the Ohio Turnpike. On the other hand, anybody who's travelled the Ohio Turnpike since at least August knows that tolls have recently increased pretty significantly. That same trip now will cost you $7.25. That is, if you don't have bikes or any other gear on top of your car. With bikes, it's $12. Each way.

So, what's the big deal about $12 anyway? Or rather, who cares about $24 for the round trip? The big deal is how the Ohio Turnpike Commission determines your toll. The two factors are the number of axles and vehicle height. Let's look at the number of axles first:

Using the number of axles to calculate tolls really boils down to how vehicle weight is distributed to the road. Most passenger cars and trucks have two axles making them Class 1, the lowest fare. The lower fare is totally understandable because they are relatively lighter vehicles and therefore do less damage to the road. Many tractor-trailers have five axles making them Class 5 and understandably pay a higher fare because they are heavier. Their weight-per-tire is considerably higher than a passenger vehicle even though they have more than quadruple the number of tires. For example, a loaded tractor-trailer with 18 tires might weigh 80,000 lbs and therefore has 4,444 lbs/tire. Our Ford Focus station wagon weighs around 2,650 lbs equating to 662 lbs/tire. Regardless of whether we put our bikes on the roof or inside the vehicle, three mountain bikes add around 70 lbs to our vehicle or a whopping 17.5 lbs/tire. Even with the additional bike weight, the force our vehicle exerts on the road surface is obviously nowhere near that of a tractor-trailer. If tolls were based simply on weight distribution, I'd be totally fine with it. It only makes sense that vehicles that can do more damage to the road should pay more for the road's maintenance.

Then, there's the height factor. As it stands right now, the height cutoff from Class 1 to Class 2 is 7ft-6in. If you're over that height, regardless of the number of axles, you become a Class 2 (or higher) vehicle and will pay a higher toll. What does height have to do with damage to the road? Certainly, an assumption can be made that taller vehicles are likely heavier and it is often true. However, it is not always true. A tractor trailer is taller than our car and is certainly heavier. Putting bikes inside our car doesn't make it any taller but it makes it heavier. The only issue I can think of where a vehicle's height is important on the Ohio Turnpike would be for going under overpasses. Even then, most overpass clearances are at least 13ft-6in. Tractor-trailers are taller than our car with bikes on the roof and they clear these overpasses with room to spare. Other than the taller=heavier assumption, I see no logical reason for height to be a factor in calculating tolls. Unless...

With the institution of the EZ-Pass system on the Ohio Turnpike, we speculated that some sort of height measurement might be part of how your toll would be assessed as you drive through the EZ-Pass lane. Since you have to drive slowly through the lane for your transponder to be read and the gate arm lifted, a simple array of photoelectric sensors would have enough time to determine the vehicle's height based on how many light beams you break. Even if this were the case (which it's not), it's an easy, but definitely not perfect, way of automating the toll calculation. Taller = heavier = higher toll. Some research into how the EZ-Pass system works revealed that no height measurement is taking place. The transponder in your vehicle is simply coded for your class. Technically, you could drive a school bus (Class 2) through the EZ-Pass lane with a transponder coded for a minivan (Class 1) and pay a lower toll.... as long as you don't get caught. (Disclaimer: I am most definitely not condoning this practice.) So, if the fancy automated system isn't using height to calculate tolls and/or prevent toll fraud, why does height even matter? I could have an EZ-Pass transponder for our car (Class 1), put bikes or whatever on the roof that makes our height above 7ft-6in (technically Class 2), and drive through the EZ-Pass lane only paying a Class 1 toll. EZ-Pass makes it "EZ" to commit fraud.

Unfortunately, EZ-Pass is simply a way for the Ohio Turnpike Commission to save money by not having to pay workers in the toll booths. One might suggest that taking the human element out of the equation is part of the problem because a worker could look at a car with a kayak on the roof and reason: "Oh, you're driving a Honda Civic, that kayak doesn't weight 6,000 lbs, and you're below the 13ft-6in overpass clearance. That makes you a Class 1. That will be $7.25 please." While simple and logical, this is also unmanageable because it becomes a judgement call every time.

If you're still reading by this point, you're probably thinking "Boy, this is a lot of complaining without offering any suggestions of how to fix the system." Keep reading.

In my perfect world, there would be scales in the toll booths that measure your vehicle's weight including whatever you have inside it, be it people, your life's possessions, or anything in between. Toll booths are generally located at exits from the highway. This means you're probably going to be driving more slowly on the exit ramp approaching the toll booth. Toll booths are often busy and so a stop-and-go scenario is already likely. Why not require vehicles to stop to pay the toll (to an actual person or automated) while simultaneously being weighed by the scale? If you really want to keep height as a factor, why not limit access to the Turnpike to vehicles that are shorter than a maximum height that safely clears the shortest overpass?

The only sticking point I can think of is how to account for the number of axles/tires on a vehicle without a human to verify. Optical/computing technology does exist to discern geometric features from a photograph and could be applied to automatically determine the number of axles from a side photograph of the vehicle. So, with the actual vehicle weight known and the number of axles known (human determined or automated), we can calculate the weight distribution to the road. If the toll classes are based on ranges of weight per axle, accurate toll calculation that is based on what actually damages the road is easy.

Will this system be perfect? I'm sure the answer to that question is NO. However, I believe it would be the most accurate overall. Precision of weight measurement would likely be the biggest issue because the calibration of a lot of scales would have to be maintained. Then again, they do this all the time at weigh stations along other non-toll highways. The weight per axle ranges for toll classes would simply have to be statistically determined to account for measurement error.

Now, if you're still reading, you might think "This is a lot of stink raised over $24." The thing is, it's not just our $24. It's all of the money extorted from outdoor athletes/enthusiasts that use the Ohio Turnpike to get to where they enjoy their equipment. Honestly, why should someone driving a Toyota Prius that has two road bikes on the roof pay more in tolls than someone driving a Ford Excursion because of height? The Excursion weighs a lot more than the Prius even though it's shorter. What if we had a minivan instead of our station wagon and decided to put a luggage carrier on the roof to comfortably hold the gear of a van full of people? I'd venture it's still lighter than the Excursion but probably taller.

Unless the Ohio Turnpike Commission changes their rules for how they determine toll classes, I recommend boycotting the Ohio Turnpike and taking the side roads. Not only will it probably not take much longer to travel the same distance, you might find some cool, out-of-the-way restaurant that will certainly be cheaper than eating at any service plaza on the Turnpike. It's almost like eating in an airport. Just remember, you're paying too much money for the privilege of being a captive audience to pay way too much for a Whopper.

What I Saw On My Ride Today: 10/27/09

2009-10-27T20:48:00.000-04:00

Bike Authority Cyclocross Series #4 - Willoughby

2009-10-19T22:37:00.003-04:00

AKA Cross My Heart and Hope to Die. AKA Cyclocross, JIF style. AKA Racing in Wet Concrete. AKA Quick, Easy Ways to Double Your Bike's Weight While Crushing Your Soul... etc...

Saturday's cyclocross race in Willoughby was one of the hardest cyclocross races I've done in probably 6 years. The previous hardest was also a Bike Authority Series race at Broadview Heights back in 2003(?) when we had temperatures in the 50's after a day of snow. Back then, it turned a short segment of the course into a thick mud that took nearly everything you had just to get through it. Thankfully, it was only a segment of the course. We weren't so lucky this time around.

According to several other race reports, it rained in Willoughby all night on Friday and didn't stop until around 11AM on Saturday. I drove through very little rain on the way to the race, but it wasn't raining when I arrived around 11:45 at the venue, Todd Field. The sun was even threatening to peek out.

The course didn't look that bad when at first. Then again, no racing had taken place yet. A majority of the course was on grass with a few very notable elements. First, there was a run-up with a barrier at the bottom. As many others have noted, that barrier proved to be pretty much unnecessary.

Thankfully, during the B-race we only had to run halfway up the hill. The A-race had to run the whole thing. In retrospect, I think the A-riders had a bit of an advantage because they got a longer roll-out on the downhill that maybe allowed them to sling a little more mud off their tires. The course headed toward the hill two more times albeit in shorter segments. In the B-race, most everyone ran every bit of the hill. It was just so chewed up and soft that pedaling them was only possible by the strongest riders. I'd speculate that those in the top-5 were among those able to ride it.

The next most difficult element of the course had to be what was dubbed the "Spiral of Death". Now, those from Team Spin can't claim total credit for the name as the great Ted Chauvin used the "Spiral of Death" in a cyclocross race two years ago in Pullman, WA. In both cases, the spiral was setup on a baseball diamond. The primary difference between these two circumstances lies in the conditions. In Pullman, it was pretty dry. Not the case in Willoughby:

The photos don't do the conditions justice. This mud was incredibly thick, sticky, and much of it went home with me on my bike. When you exited the spiral, the mud was a little soupier before the barriers. It was almost a relief. I couldn't believe how much mud had accumulated on my bike throughout the race. It was especially noticeable when going over the barriers. I remember thinking on the last lap "Holy crap this thing is heavy." as I picked my bike up to go over the barriers.

Even in the grassy sections, the ground was really soft and it took so much effort to push through. On the very sparse segments of pavement in the course, it felt like someone lifted a 50lb weight off of your shoulders. You could go so much faster it felt like a dream. The extra momentum helped when you hit the grass again shortly after.

I'll fully admit that I didn't have my best race ever. My start wasn't great despite starting on the front row. Everyone was extremely cautious going into the first turn because it was greasy. After that, there was a bit of a cluster the first time up the run-up. It was a little frustrating, but I figured that I'd go through my usual tactic of simply making up for the bad start by picking off riders through the rest of the race. Sure, I as able to make up several places and then I'd give up a few. The last lap was mostly survival... and trying to hold off Pat Miranda who was chasing me. Thanks, Pat. Nice work keeping me motivated!

In the end, I finished 21st out of 41 finishers. According to the results, there were a few mechanicals and some DNFs. Both are totally understandable. That mud got in EVERYTHING and it's a wonder our bikes even worked. I also can understand some not finishing due to having their soul beat out of their body with their legs. It was hard, and, thank goodness I get to drop a couple of my bad finishes in the series points chase.

On the plus side, the race was certainly fun. On top of that, I didn't have the same abdominal issues post-race that I had two weeks prior. The drive home past the Cuyahoga Valley was gorgeous with all of the fall foliage.

Kudos to Team Spin for putting on the race. We all know how hard it is to organize and pull off such an event. In this case, however, I don't envy them if they have to repair the baseball field with the "Spiral of Death". In their defense, they certainly couldn't have predicted the weather when they scheduled the race. Unfortunately, it's all just part of cyclocross and race promotion.

I was able to get a few photos from the A-race and the aftermath that was my cross bike. For the full slideshow, see below:

Kind of a blur

2009-10-16T21:54:00.003-04:00

Well, the last few weeks have been VERY busy for us. Perhaps the biggest news in our little world is that we're in the process of buying a house. It's a little hard to believe, but it's nearly ours. The inspection happens next week and, provided that all goes well, it's just a matter of time to get all of the paperwork through. Still not exactly sure whether I think the process is easy or mind-boggling complex. So far, it's been more straightforward than I anticipated and I'm OK with that.

On the riding front, it's been a few weeks since the last Bike Authority Series cyclocross race and tomorrow marks the next installment. I hope the legs feel as good as they did today. What with all of this house-buying stuff, riding time has been a little limited. I'm definitely mentally pretty psyched since I'm doing well in terms of series points.

The last little nugget is the fact that the University of Idaho Vandals football team is friggin' 5-1! Everything I've read this week suggests that we should beat Hawaii in the Kibbie Dome tomorrow. If we do win, we're bowl eligible for the first time in 10 years! I was really hoping Tulsa would knock off Boise State and make the November 14th game between the Vandals and Broncos even more interesting... Hell, Idaho even got a vote for the Top-25 last week! Is that enough exclamation points for you?!!

More to come tomorrow I'm sure... Gotta go take some fresh bread out of the oven and then get a good night's rest.

Bike Authority Cyclocross Series #3 - Leroy Twp

2009-10-06T22:09:00.003-04:00

Sunday's cyclocross race at Leroy Township Park near Painesville was one of the sloppiest races I've done in a while. Even last weekend's race at Kent Stark in a downpour didn't get nearly as muddy and Starcrossed in 2008 wasn't horrible despite the all-day rain. I knew things were going to be interesting when I stepped off the parking lot and onto the grass upon arriving at the park. That telltale 'squish'. Granted, it didn't rain at all during the race, but they'd had plenty and the ground was super-saturated.

The C-race got started around noon and they did a good job of 'breaking-in' the course for us B-racers. Temps were in the 50's and it was difficult to decide whether to go with arm and/or knee warmers given that getting wet was not optional. After warming up, I opted to lose the arm warmers for fear of overheating during the race. I'm still not sure whether that was a good idea or not. I definitely didn't notice the cold and had plenty of sweat pouring off my brow.

I didn't get a great start, but managed to be about 10th going into the first turn. It was a slick one and thankfully I was smarter this week by running lower tire pressure. I stayed in 10th position for quite a while, occasionally trading a few spots throughout the first 3 or 4 laps. The top 10 riders seemed to be fairly close together for a good portion of the race and I kept seeing people in front of my that I was closing in on. During the last two laps I pretty much buried myself trying to catch them and only managed to make up one place. I'll still take 9th place though. It's my best finish so far this cyclocross season and I don't think I'm quite at my peak yet. Right now I've got a 10th, 15th, and 9th with nowhere to go but up.

Hats off to Robert Sroka for his second place finish. He was right in front of me at Wendy Park and finished 5th at Kent Stark. He's definitely on his way up. Also, nice work by Rick Parr for once again holding me off. Dude, if you're reading this, you made me work my ass off chasing. I really don't think I left anything out there on the course, that's for sure.

Post-race, I was talking with a fellow OCC rider and suddenly felt really light-headed and nauseated. It nearly brought me to my knees and I had to squat down for a while until the feeling passed. As I continued to get changed and ready to depart, I just felt worse and worse. Standing up made my stomach turn somersaults and I completely lost my appetite even though I knew I had to eat something. I got everything loaded, choked down and Larabar and hit the road for the 1h45min drive home.

This had to be one of the worst drives home after a race that I can recollect. In addition to stomach cramps and nausea, I also became extremely tired and almost pulled off at a rest area to sleep. Oddly enough, the exciting finish of the Browns/Bengals game on the radio kept my spirits up enough to get home safely. Though, upon walking in the door, I promptly collapsed on the couch and went to sleep for a couple of hours. I had to have my legs up in the fetal position to make the cramps bearable. The worst part was not knowing the cause. I woke up around 6:30pm and managed to eat a little and try to stay awake for a little while longer. Finally, I went to bed at 8:30pm and didn't wake up again until 6:30am the next morning when the alarm went off. When I did wake up, I felt 100% better. Almost like the previous evening of pain never happened. I went through the whole day at work with no lingering effects and still don't know the cause. Probably never will.

The next cross race isn't until the 17th in Willoughby. Plenty of time to recover and get ready. Until then, here are a couple of my favorite photos from the race:

Black and White #1

Black and White #2

Not just a cookie...

2009-09-29T18:05:00.002-04:00

... it's fruit and cake! Perhaps one of the greatest energy sources ever, fig newtons, or, in this case Fig Newmans, are pretty hard to beat. Nothing will fuel you for a hard ride like eating an entire sleeve of fig newtons. That's 15 newtons, 7.5 servings, or 825 calories according to the nutrition information. I ate that every Wednesday night driving between West Salem and Orrville for the OCC ride and, very often, it still wasn't quite enough to last through an A-ride. Fig Newmans pack a little more calories per serving and do taste better than their Nabisco brethren. Unfortunately, I'm not sure whether I could fiscally or psychologically eat an entire package of Fig Newmans prior to a ride. It would quickly become an expensive habit. That is, unless we could get them as a sponsor... wink-wink-nudge-nudge.

So close...

2009-09-28T12:47:00.003-04:00

The results from Saturday's Bike Authority Cyclocross #2 are up: Click here for results

There are only 54 seconds between 8th and 15th in the B-race. I was 43 seconds out of the top 10. Then again, in bike racing, 43 seconds is a long time...

Photos from Bike Authority Cyclocross #2 - Kent Stark

2009-09-27T17:00:00.003-04:00

Marty and Traci took some photos as they cheered us on at the race yesterday. The photos are up on Flickr:

Bob Grimm also took several photos from all of the races. You can view the entire album here:

Bike Authority Cyclocross #2 Album - Orrville Cycling Photo Site

or, I've bookmarked several photos of us out of that album:

http://cyclingteamorrville.shutterfly.com/646

http://cyclingteamorrville.shutterfly.com/651

http://cyclingteamorrville.shutterfly.com/640

http://cyclingteamorrville.shutterfly.com/642

Again, many thanks to those that put on these races and those that come out and support us. It makes it even MORE fun.

Bike Authority CX #2 - Kent Stark

2009-09-26T18:46:00.001-04:00

Today, Lorena and I headed over to North Canton for the race #2 in the Bike Authority Cyclocross Series. This weekend's event was organized by Stark Velo and major props to them for putting on a fun race. The course had a little bit of everything and the pouring rain made it even more interesting. There were lots of tight and twisting turns that many people, including myself, fell victim to. Brakes were pretty much non-existent and so you just had to think ahead a little and make sure your front wheel didn't wash out. After the race, I thought I could have probably run slightly lower tire pressure and prevented a few mishaps. In all, I think I hit the soggy turf about 4 times and each one cost me a few places by the time I got remounted. The worst occurred on what became the last lap when one of my feet caught the second barrier and I tumbled, throwing my bike. Two guys went by me on that one and I only got one of them back. Then, the lightning came and the race was ended early.

I finished 15th in a B-field of 43. Lorena finished 4th in the Women's B field. I'm not terribly disappointed with that even thought I felt like I might have made up some more places if the race had gone on another 15 minutes. This week was an R&R week training-wise and so I'm not necessarily surprised that I wasn't quite able to wind it up like I wanted. Had it not been for the crashes today, I might have been able to finish higher. I got great sleep last night, felt great, and was really looking forward to racing today. The next few weeks will be more intense and perhaps my results will be better at the next race. Today was still a lot of fun and mucho kudos to Marty and Traci for coming out to cheer us on.

There should be pictures up sometime soon.

Shaving, Marinating, or Cloudy With a Chance of Goat Fur

2009-09-24T14:46:00.002-04:00

(Disclaimer: I am an engineer and not a marketer. I have also never taken a class in marketing. However, I do have a functioning brain capable of critical thought but with a bit of a weakness for literal interpretation. Life, literally, is more funny that way.)

While standing in the shower post-ride today, I noticed a "shaving" product on the shelf with some odd ingredients:

Now, I didn't buy this product and neither did Lorena. We'll leave that point at "it is what it is". The word "shaving" is in quotes above because it seems to be more of a food item what with all of the "olive butter" and "soy". What exactly is "olive butter" anyway? And what does soy have to do with shaving? It's almost like they hired Paula Dean to help with the marketing. "Now what ya'll need is more butter in there." Sounds like something more akin to garlic bread, not necessarily something I put on my legs.

Then there's the brand name: Skintimate. That seems to suggest it will make you more alluring. Sure, shaved legs are sexy but, butter and soy don't exactly say "Come get some of this!"

"Oh Honey, I really do want you but, I'll be damned if I don't suddenly have a hankerin' for some roasted edamame..."

The next conundrum is: What exactly is "Cashmere Rain"? Seriously? You're saying this stuff is like wool falling from the sky? I suppose that if you were caught in a rain of wool, you would stay warm because wool keeps you warm, even when wet. That's a good thing. On the other hand, this product is used to remove hair from your body so I'm not sold on the warm-when-wet theory. I'm still unclear about how this has anything to do with olive butter and soy? Do they feed the Cashmere goats soy and then smear them with olive butter before shearing them?

Unless someone with greater expertise than I can explain this, I'll just leave this as a mystery for the ages.

And they say men have a one-track mind...

2009-09-22T21:49:00.002-04:00

I do believe that the salmon in Michigan's Manistee River were very focused on one thing this past weekend and that one thing was not the multitude of lures our crew threw into the river in an attempt to shorten their journey. Seven of us headed up to northwest Michigan for a little salmon fishing/camping trip. Lorena had to work this weekend and couldn't go, though, I think she was OK with not driving a long ways to not catch fish.

The remainder of us drove up to Pine Lake campground near Wellston, MI on Saturday and arrived around 5PM. We set up camp and headed out to fish a couple of spots a local fly shop in Wellston recommended. We reached the first spot and found a few people fishing who said it had been pretty slow. That didn't sound promising and so up the river we went to the next spot. There were considerably more fishermen there and one guy was trying to land a salmon when we arrived. The main problem was finding access to the river for all of us to fish. Those already there had taken the most convenient spots. After a little deliberation, we opted to head back to the first spot because there was more open area along the river bank for all seven of us to spread out.

Upon arrival there, a woman had a salmon on and was trying to get it close enough to shore to be netted... and then her line broke. It was probably the only fish she had all day. Bummer. We spread out along the bank and tried our luck. I think I lost 3 lures in about 20 minutes because I was fishing near a bunch of logs and managed to get snagged somewhere underwater. After a few people left, I moved down the river a little. About this time, quite a few salmon started jumping out of the water in a variety of places. You'd hear this big KERSPLOOSH! and look over to see one flopping into the water. It was so frustrating to see all of these active fish and not even get a bite. One of them managed to splash water on my pants it was so close. Three and a half hours of no-luck later and we headed back to the campground.

One of the neatest things about where we camped was that it was in the Manistee National Forest and there wasn't a whole lot of light pollution. That means, nice, dark sky and lots of stars. It was truly awesome and I only wish I had a nicer camera with longer exposures to capture a picture of that night sky.

The next morning, five of us got up early and drove over to Manistee to fish on the pier that reaches out into Lake Michigan. We were there before sunrise, but that just meant I got to take a cool picture of the sunrise:

It was also a chilly 42F with a steady wind that made for some cold fingers. There were a number of other people out on the pier, but it didn't look like anybody else was having any luck either. Lorena's dad and one of Marty's friends each caught a sheepshead, but that was it. After a couple of hours of additional frustration, we headed back to camp.

The return trip included a stop at the Little Manistee River weir to see the salmon stacking up there before the MDNR begins harvesting eggs from some of them. You probably could have waded out into the river and just grabbed an armload there were so many.

Getting from the weir to the campground involved taking the minivan on a VERY unimproved road that was supposed to be a 'shortcut'. Turned out to be the long-cut and would have been even more of an adventure had the ground been wet. We obviously made it out alive. (thanks to my mad off-road driving skillz...)

The drive back to Navarre was pretty long, about 11 hours. Listening to the Browns lose didn't improve matters. I had such high hopes... All in all, it couldn't put a damper what was ultimately a great time with great people despite being foiled by our quarry.

Here are more photos from the trip:

After a couple days off the bike it was nice to get in a couple of road rides already this week. Looking forward to Saturday's cross race in Canton. More Cowbell!

Wow

2009-09-16T19:25:00.004-04:00

This is the ball carrier from a headset bearing that Lorena removed from a bike at the shop the other day. She said the bike wasn't very old. Simply amazing. I can somewhat understand this from an old bottom bracket bearing, but a headset?!?

Even better was listening to Lorena describe how much work (chiseling was involved) it took to get this headset apart.

Pics from B-race: Bike Authority Cyclocross #1 - Wendy Park

2009-09-14T22:17:00.002-04:00

Everyone should check out the pictures that Victor Dvorak posted on Flickr from the cyclocross race. Some really great shots in there.

Bike Authority Lake Effect Wendy Park Cyclocross Series

I've created a gallery of just the shots of us in the mix. You can view it here:

Chris and Lorena Flickr Gallery

Bike Authority Cyclocross Series #1 - Wendy Park, Cleveland

2009-09-14T13:33:00.000-04:00

Sunday saw Lorena and I load up the 'cross bikes and head to Wendy Park on Whiskey Island in Cleveland. Wendy Park is kind of an odd patch of green in an otherwise industrial landscape along the shore of Lake Erie. You have a pretty good view of downtown Cleveland, the Flats, and Cleveland Browns Stadium. We were close enough to the stadium that, when trains weren't going by, we could hear the crowd cheer for a few of the good plays Cleveland had in their loss to the Vikings.

It was a beautiful day with temps in the 70's and a nice breeze blowing in off the lake. Not necessarily weather you think of when you think of cyclocross. The people from Team Lake Effect should be commended for putting up such a fun course. The hard ground made for some bumpy sections and numb hands in a few places. The brief respite of pavement that took us to the old Coast Guard station helped restore feeling in my hand. It was also a nice chance to recover a bit after the up/down of the rest of the course.

In the B (Cat 3, Sport, whatever) race, there were 59 men and 10 women. As I stood there at the starting line and looked around at my competition, I actually was a bit nervous. I know how strong many of them are on the road and wondered what I had gotten myself into. Then again, I knew that I haven't been spending all of this time training for nothing. The start was fast on the gravel and everyone kept their heads as we got into the first tight turns. I managed to move up a few places on the first couple climbs and then we had a bit of a traffic jam in the small switchback section over a little "hump". Once the field got stretched out, I was able to keep moving up over the remainder of the race. There was only one barrier section that was basically three railroad ties. Prior to the race, I tried riding through them instead of dismounting. I could do it, but they were close enough together that I had to slow way down. I know that I was WAY faster running through them. A few people in the A-race did ride through them.

In the end, I finished 10th and I'm very happy with that result. It was my first race since spring and I was able to really keep the intensity up. Granted, it's only a 45-minute race, but it's a very HARD 45-minutes. On the last lap I knew there was a small group chasing and I just kept telling myself 'Keep it up. Keep it up.' and they didn't catch me. I was so close to finishing even better as there was less than 1-minute between 5th and 10th. Regardless, I was all smiles at the end. It was also nice having Heath there to ring the cowbells and cheer us on.

Lorena had a strong race against some stiff competition in the Women's B field. She placed 5th and was a lap up on 6th place, but I'll let her talk about how her race went.

Unfortunately, even though we provided Heath with a camera... he didn't take any pictures during our race. I've been scouring the intertron this morning looking for pictures from the B-race because I know there were a lot of photographers out there. All of the photos posted on our Flickr page are from pre/post-race and during the A and C races.

Wendy Park Flickr Set

Looking forward to the next race in the series at the Kent State University - Stark Campus on Sept. 26th. On the way home, we stopped in Brecksville to get some food. There, we witnessed the Aluminum Falcon.

Simply stunning.

Navarre Cross, Training, and Drivers' Education

2009-09-10T22:36:00.000-04:00

Wow. There's been a lot going on in our little world since the last post. Perhaps that's why I haven't had time to write anything despite keeping a mental tally.

First of all, last Wednesday's Orrville A-ride seemed to be more difficult than usual. It's that time of year when that old sun hits the horizon a little sooner than we'd like and club rides get shorter and shorter. Last week's ride was only 30 miles and the hammer dropped almost as soon as we left the shop. Seriously. Not even a mile from the shop and people were jumping off the front. It stands to reason that with such a short ride, people have a lot in the tank and there's not nearly as much holding back as you might have when rides are twice as long in the middle of summer. The first 45 minutes were hard but manageable. Then, I felt a little twinge in my right calf, the start of a cramp. Damn it. That's such a nice feeling when Moreland Hill looms only few miles away. As we turned onto Moreland Road, a certain somebody decided the pace needed turned up a little more. I tried to push it, but my left calf started to twinge as well and I knew my chances of hanging onto the group were slim. That is, unless I wanted to hurt myself, which I didn't. The group slowed up a little at the base of Moreland Hill, but it didn't really matter. I hate cramps and my biggest worry was having both legs lock up in the middle of the climb. So, I just went at as comfortable of a pace as you can on that climb. Everyone else hammered over the top and was gone. This is where it just turned into a survival ride back to the shop. I rode the remaining 45 minutes by myself, going as fast as I could without cramping. I'd be interested to know what the rest of the group's average speed was because I still managed to have an average of 20.8mph at the end of the ride and I never saw them after Moreland Hill. Such is life I suppose. With cyclocross season kicking off this Sunday, I'm not in a training mode to hammer my brains out on Wednesday night.

Upon looking at my heart rate data after the ride, it's really no wonder I started to get cramps. When your heart rate is at or above your lactic threshold and you're not clearing out lactic acid, you're going to get cramps. During the ride, it seemed like every time I looked down my heart rate was at or above 175bpm and my lactic threshold is around 174bpm. The data showed that 70% of the ride was spent with my heart rate very near my threshold. Quite frankly, I was kind of stupid for going against my training plan and putting in too hard of an effort that night. The cramps were just my body's way of making me pay for it.

Despite this indiscretion, I'm feeling pretty good about my fitness going into this Sunday's Bike Authority cyclocross race in Cleveland. The last couple of weeks, in addition to regular training, I've set up makeshift barriers here at the house to practice dismounts/remounts as it takes a little getting used to again and I don't want to embarrass myself. For this evening's "Navarre Cross", Lorena didn't have to work and so we both got the chance to have some fun turning laps on our little cross course. Hell, even Swirls got in on the action.

Changing gears a little (no pun intended)... I finally got my Ohio driver's license last week. Even as a former Ohio resident, this required taking a "written" test. I was actually pleasantly surprised that it had questions pertaining to how drivers are supposed to interact with pedestrians and cyclists. One question in particular dealt with how drivers are supposed to safely pass a cyclist on the road when traffic is approaching in the opposite direction. A possible response was to "speed up and try to pass the cyclist before the oncoming traffic reaches the cyclist". While incorrect, this appears to be the favorite method of many Ohio drivers based on YEARS of experience and the many times it has happened during my last few rides. Another favorite is to pass me 30 feet before making a right/left turn. Honking/yelling at me is very classy. Turn signals are apparently optional too. This is also a major annoyance when I'm driving. It's not that hard, people. Perhaps they aren't teaching these simple concepts in driver's ed any more? Given that you only have to get 75% of the questions on the written test correct, the bar is set pretty low. If ever there was a time to encourage the importance of education of all kinds, it's now. Oh wait, that's how the terrorists win.

On a much more positive note, Monday was my 32nd birthday and my awesome wife Lorena made me an awesome cake (and eggplant parmesan).

If I only had a can of Old Milwaukee to go with it, the mantra "It doesn't get any better than this." would be even more appropriate.

More cyclocross motivation

2009-09-02T09:35:00.001-04:00

In the same vein as the last post, here is a collection of some of my favorite photos from all of the cyclocross racing we've done through the years. Some even go back to 2000 at OU! I was looking through a bunch of old race pictures and this got me even more excited about 'cross season. Click on the mosaic to be taken to the Flickr set.

Highway to the Danger Zone

2009-08-31T12:35:00.000-04:00

OK. Maybe Beach City, OH isn't really the 'Danger Zone' and the fast-moving, low-flying, plane that buzzed over me wasn't an F-14. The scene was still a bit reminiscent of Top Gun while I was riding past the Beach City airport on SR212 toward Beach City on Sunday. He was really moving and if the plane was 100 feet off the ground I'd be surprised. I really didn't know it was coming until it was right over my head and scared the crap out of me. I'm pretty sure I actually ducked. Of all the times I've ridden past that airport, that's probably the first time I've actually seen a plane land there even though I'm sure it gets used often enough.

Only a couple of weeks until cyclocross seasons starts. Now is about the time that I start bringing running into the training regime. It's always hard the first few weeks as my hamstrings and inner quads don't really like the transition. The first run is usually fine. The next day is when things start to hurt a little and my muscles remind me that something foreign is being forced upon them. Yesterday's run after an easy ride ended up being cut short because my legs would have none of it. I just have to ease into it, as usual, and it will eventually get better.

The book "Cyclocross: Training and Technique 3rd edition" by Simon Burney is a pretty good resource for cyclocross specific training. I own the 2nd edition and really use it for the training information more so than the technique stuff. I know, I know. I've said the 'T' word. Based on my past success, cyclocross is my favorite type of racing. The training I do for it pays off and that makes it fun for me. There are some other useful cyclocross training articles over at, appropriately named, Cyclocross Magazine:

Cyclocross Training - Part 1
Cyclocross Training - Part 2
Cyclocross Training - Part 3

Finally, I don't exactly recall how I came across this band, but this song is flat-out hilarious. Watch at your own risk...

Walking in circles with grass-coated crocs

2009-08-26T19:23:00.000-04:00

I think it's a safe bet that many of us spent a good portion of our childhoods mowing the lawn in the summer. For sure, many an hour of my summers was spent doing the "Suburbia Squat" atop a riding mower. A recent phone conversation with my mother confirmed that it still takes my dad no less time than it took me back in the day.

Since going off to college, I've only had to mow the occasional lawn and I'm quite OK with that. We had one in Wadsworth and at our place in Moscow. In stark contrast, these only took around 30 minutes to mow with a reel mower and I most certainly let it grow as long as possible between cuttings. Quite frankly, I don't like mowing grass that much and can think of a lot more fun and productive ways of spending my time and money. There was an interesting article in the Canton Repository recently about how so many people will mow their grass religiously whether it "needs" it or not. This isn't really a quote so much as my take on the thought process of these "grassophobes":

OMG! My grass is 3.01 inches tall! That's way over the 3 inch American standard. Better pull out the 30 horsepower zero-turn riding mower to chop down my 1/8 acre city lot.

Admittedly, I'm laying on the sarcasm pretty thick here. I'm not anti-mowing. A well-maintained lawn does look nice. I simply find it staggering how much gasoline is used every summer, just to cut grass. Full-disclosure, I haven't done any calculations or seen any statistics as to how many gallons of gas are used for mowing, but I'd guess it's a lot. Think about how much fuel is burned to manicure golf courses alone! I wonder what the impact would be on gas prices if all of those mowing gallons were magically available for transportation? It's really simple economics. An increase in supply would likely push prices down by some amount. I'm sure the people that bitch about high gas prices would appreciate that. Then again, they might just bitch that it didn't lower the price enough. Just think about the total cost associated with fueling all of these mowers. With everyone looking for ways to save money in these tough times, switching to a method of mowing that doesn't cost anything every time you mow seems like a no brainer. On top of that, even if a reel mower costs $180, that's a helluva lot cheaper than even the cheapest gas-powered mowers at your big-box home improvement stores.

As I mowed my in-laws' lawn with our reel mower this morning, I thought a lot about the things mentioned above. There was essentially no cost associated with my mowing. I was able to listen to my iPod while walking along without having to turn it all the way up just to hear it over a droning engine. There was no pollution: exhaust or noise. It was certainly a workout because it still took 3 hours. All that, and the end result is still a nice-looking mowed lawn. It's really not that hard. Think of the quieter neighborhoods and cleaner air that would result if everyone changed how they approached this seemingly trivial task just a little bit.

I know this is going to make me sound like a grumpy old fart, but I'm thinking that more kids pushing mowers instead of buttons on their Xbox would have a positive impact on the child obesity numbers that seem to increase every year. (Think Wall-E.) It probably wouldn't hurt the adults either. All of this good by simply changing how a blade of grass gets chopped. It may be pie-in-the-sky thinking, but I'll eat that pie and then go out and burn the calories pushing my reel mower. That is, if I'm not burning them while breathing the cleaner air on my bike.

In the end, all of this is a bit moot when there's still the question of whether grass really needs to get cut in the first place? I mean, it's a plant and plants produce oxygen that we all need to breathe. Seems strange to me that we've "progressed" to the point of developing a way to cut down an oxygen source while simultaneously polluting the air. Perhaps that's a topic for another day.

2009 Canadian Fishing Trip

2009-08-23T17:31:00.006-04:00

I've finally gotten around to processing all of the pictures and condensing the events of our Canadian fishing trip. Anybody who knows me will attest that I can be a bit long-winded in telling a story. What everyone fails to realize is that all of those gory details are very important to the enjoyment of the story. ;)

The simplest version would be: We drove cars to Canada and a plane flew us to a lake. We caught some fish in the lake. Then, the plane flew us back to our cars and we drove back to the United States.

Doesn't that sound like a good time?

If you answered 'No', you can stop reading now. Then again, perhaps reading further might change your mind. If you answered 'Yes', you could also stop reading, but I'm suspecting you might be the kind of person who would want to read about why it was AWESOME and then maybe go do it yourself.

As for pictures, I took 118 of which 91 were good and 48 made it to Flickr. You can check out those that were uploaded by clicking below:

2009 Canada Fishing Trip Flickr Set

The trip was from August 7th through August 18th. We were originally slated to be back on the 17th, but Mother Nature intervened as you will find out later. There were seven of us on the trip:

Marty Brown
Traci Liberatore (Marty's girlfriend)
Lorena Brown
Chris Huck
Charlie Brown (Lorena's and Marty's dad)
Ed Briner (Close family friend)
Kenny Stephens (Chris's grandpa)

The plan was to fish Felsia Lake in Northern Ontario. Felsia is one of the lakes operated by Leuenberger Air Service in Nakina, Ontario and the lake is only really accessible by air. There may be ways of getting there by water, but not very easily. It's approximately 105 miles northwest of Nakina in fairly undisturbed wilderness. We would be staying in the only cabin on Felsia Lake. Adjacent (and connected) Hurst Lake has a few cabins as well that are operated by other air services from Armstrong, Ontario.

Day 1: August 7th, 2009 (Friday)

Left the house around 7AM with the intention of arriving in Sault Ste. Marie, MI by evening. En route, we had a brief stop at Cabela's while the other vehicle picked up Marty and Traci. We got into the Soo around 6PM and went down to the locks to see if there were any large ships passing through. There was one, the Walter J. McCarthy Jr., a 1000 foot long vessel. Watching boats that size go through the locks is always impressive.

Dinner was at Zorba's Greek restaurant in downtown Sault Ste. Marie. Their dolmades (grape leaves) were pretty darned tasty. I know that I'd eat there again for sure.

Our motel was the Royal Motel.

Day 2: August 8th, 2009 (Saturday)

We had breakfast at Frank's Place in downtown Sault Ste. Marie, a place we'd eaten at before on our last fishing trip. From there, it was hurry up and wait to cross the border and then get on Canadian Hwy 17 going north. On the way to Wawa, Ontario, we stopped at The Canadian Carver for coffee and to stretch the legs. Once in Wawa, we stopped again and I wound up talking to a Frenchman named Bruno Saulet. He has been riding around the world for the last two years and most recently had ridden across Canada starting in Vancouver. At least he had a tailwind for riding so loaded. We had an interesting conversation and he showed me the route he'd taken. You can read about his trip on his website (www.bruno-saulet.com). Just use Google to translate it if you can't read French. Here's his bike:

Our intention was to stop at Skinner's Famous Acre in Longlac to get our fishing licenses before heading on to Nakina. Unfortunately for us, Skinner's was closed when we got there and so we opted for dinner at a pizza place we'd eaten at before. Ed wanted to go to Mass in Longlac that evening and asked all of us if we'd like to join him. No response... until Kenny spoke up with one of the quotes of the trip:

"We don't need to go to church, Ed, because none of the rest of us have sinned today."

Uproarious laughter. Ed did make it to Mass, and it was in French. Afterward, we proceeded on to our motel (The Shores) in Nakina. A couple of black bears were happily munching on roadside vegetation and welcomed us into town.

Day 3: August 9th, 2009 (Sunday)

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO US! Lorena and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary primarily by sitting in Leuenberger's waiting room ALL DAY due to crappy weather. We were supposed to fly out to Felsia, but the weather never cleared. A bass tournament at the float plane lake provided a little entertainment. The float plane crew also fed dead minnows to a smallmouth bass that liked to hang around the dock.

We weren't the only group that didn't get to fly out on time. When both groups converged on a small restaurant in Nakina for pizza, they ran out of dough and cheese after our orders!

Day 4: August 10th, 2009 (Monday)

We arrived at Leuenberger's at 6:30AM hoping the weather would be clear enough to fly. Again, we waited around until almost 12:30PM when we finally got our chance. A little over an hour later we were at the cabin on Felsia and fishing. Weather at the cabin was beautiful. We all headed out to fish until about 6PM and neither grandpa or I caught anything. Marty and Lorena caught dinner for everyone. Charlie had a 31.5" pike. After dinner, grandpa and I went back out and I got two northern pike and a walleye before the mosquitos got to be too bad. Fishing was tough for everyone today.

Day 5: August 11th, 2009 (Tuesday)

Fishing today was better. Everyone decided to go over to Hurst Lake to see what it was all about. This required going through some rocky, fast water between the lakes. The boat that Lorena, Traci, and I were in got hung up on some rocks and required the assistance of one of the other boats. Fishing in Hurst wasn't very productive as I only got a 10" walleye while jigging. It then took 3 attempts to go back up the rapids into Felsia. Just around the point from the cabin, Lorena and Traci both got pike in some weedy areas along the shore before we went in for lunch.

After lunch, Lorena, Traci, and I trolled some new places and I caught two 21" walleye. Lorena got a 28" pike that broke a rod tip in the boat as it thrashed around in the net. The Silver Minnow spoon was a very productive lure today as Lorena and I both caught pike using it.

After a fabulous dinner of walleye cordon bleu, Marty, Traci, and I went out to jig for walleye and proceeded to get harassed like crazy by mosquitos and black flies. Even though Traci caught a walleye pretty quickly, we didn't fish for very long because of the insects.

Lorena found some wild cranberries near the cabin and we saw eagles and loons galore.

Day 6: August 12th, 2009 (Wednesday)

It was very HOT and WINDY on the water today. I commend Marty for being able to control the boat in the choppy conditions. We fished very hard for the few fish we caught. Only three between Marty and I for the morning. After lunch, Lorena, Traci,and Marty went swimming in the lake. Later, Marty and I went to the southern end of the lake where the Witchwood River flows in. Near the mouth, I got a pike and Marty got a walleye. We went up the river to the rapids which didn't end up being very productive. I did catch one pike back there while Marty jigged and jigged to no avail. It wasn't until we got back out to the mouth of the river that Marty got another pike on a Silver Minnow.

Leuenberger's flew in to drop off gas for the boats and check on us. In the evening, a big anvil cloud from a distant thunderstorm created a cool sunset. The storm didn't hit us directly, but we got a cool lightning show from it.

Day 7: August 13th, 2009 (Thursday)

This was projected to be the best fishing day of the trip by the solunar tables. Well, it was. We were up at 5:30AM to be on the water by 6. Lorena and I trolled a spot we fished on Tuesday and each caught 4 fish before heading in about 9AM. One was my 23.5" walleye. Our afternoon fishing wasn't very productive, but after dinner, it got a whole lot better.

We fished with jigs in the channel between Felsia and Hurst lakes and did very well. Lorena had 8 walleye and 2 pike while I caught 7 walleye. Marty and Traci also did very well in the same spot.

All together, the entire crew caught 74 fish for the day.

Day 8: August 14th, 2009 (Friday)

This proved to be yet another good day. Up again at 5:30AM. This time, Charlie and I went over to Hurst Lake to fish. I got two walleye and two pike while Charlie got one 19" walleye. One of the walleye I caught proceeded to spit out a 5" long, partially digested, northern pike it had eaten earlier.

After lunch, Ed and I went out for a while. A storm rolled in shortly and so we went in for about an hour before it blew through and we could go back out. We trolled some new spots and each got a few fish before going in for dinner. Marty and I cleaned fish before dinner and I don't think I have ever been as annoyed by mosquitos as I was then. They wouldn't leave my hands alone and we had a lot of fish to clean. Some of the fish I cleaned were probably a little more hacked than I wanted because I was working too quickly.

Ed and I went over to Hurst Lake to fish after dinner. I caught a small pike on a jig right away and a 21" walleye around one of the islands while Ed got a couple walleye just below the rapids between Felsia and Hurst including the 20" walleye right before we headed in for the night.

Another day of 74 fish for the crew!

Day 9: August 15th, 2009 (Saturday)

The weather took a nasty turn overnight. We woke up at 5:30AM to windy, cold, blowing drizzle. It was about 45F and none too pleasant. Traci and I went out to troll a few previously good spots before heading back in to pick up Ed a little later in the morning. Once we got to the first spot we were going to troll, the motor died. There we were, broadside to the waves (small whitecaps) and wind with no power. It was also very foggy so we couldn't see any of the other boats to get their attention if we needed help. Fortunately, the motor started after a few minutes and we were able to fish until about 7:30 when we headed in pick up Ed. I was very cold, soaked, and tired. The rain picked up while we were at the cabin so we decided not to go back out right away. Marty and Charlie were big winners for the morning with 7 fish each and grandpa had a 24" walleye.

While breakfast cooked, I fell asleep in the chair and then, after breakfast, I went back to bed and slept until 1pm. A much-needed nap. Lorena and I fished the Hurst-Felsia channel some in the afternoon and after dinner with moderate success. Marty and Traci also fished there in the evening and did A LOT better than us. Traci had 9 fish and Marty 4.

Everyone spent the rest of the night packing things up in lieu of getting picked up sometime the next morning if the weather held out. The solar powered lights in the cabin went out today for reasons unknown. Supposedly, we could have reset the circuit, but we didn't know how.

Day 10: August 16th, 2009 (Sunday)

This was the day we were scheduled to be picked up. That is, until we woke up and saw what the weather decided to do:

The fog didn't clear out all day and the rain was off and on. Obviously, we didn't get picked up and probably could have fished an extra day except that we never knew when the weather would be good enough for them to fly. Instead, we sat around the cabin all day reading magazines/books and playing cards. We even had a fire going in the wood stove. It was a LONG day though it gave me a chance to compile all of the fishing statistics (see below).

Day 11: August 17th, 2009 (Monday)

The weather this morning was a lot better. We heard a plane fly in to Hurst Lake and figured that Leuenberger's would be picking us up. The weather still could be crappy in Nakina for all we knew. We still had everything ready to go and the plane showed up around 8:15. The next group in the cabin helped us load our stuff since we helped them unload theirs. Then, their second plane arrived (beer?) just as we were getting ready to depart for Nakina. The flight back to Nakina was rougher than the flight out to the lake. It was a little shorter though due to a tailwind. We arrived in Nakina about 9:30 and quickly loaded our vehicles.

Made a quick stop at Skinner's in Longlac just to B.S. with him and make lunch. The next stop would be Hornepayne, Ontario. On the way, the car developed what seemed to be a tire out of balance. We stopped in Hornepayne and checked tire pressure to make sure we weren't too low for the now loaded car. Between Hornepayne and White River, the vibration got worse. I adjusted the side mirror down so I could see the rear wheel and saw that one of the lug nuts was loose and flopping around. I quickly pulled over and discovered we had a broken stud and one of the other lug nuts was loose. After checking and tightening all of the other lugs, we proceeded on to White River.

We pulled into the service station at 4:30PM and I asked one of the mechanics if they had any replacement studs. Of course, they didn't, but they did call the Ford dealer in Wawa who did have them... just no time to install them the next day. We thought we were going to be staying in Wawa and getting it fixed the next day. Rolling into Wawa, the tire seemed to be doing fine so we opted to continue on and try to get to Sault Ste. Marie where there would be more repair options.

Leaving Wawa, the other vehicle asked if we needed gas or if we wanted to wait until The Canadian Carver "30 minutes" down the road. Since we had 1/8 tank of gas, I said we would wait... Over an hour later and having been on 'E' for a long time, we finally saw a gas station in Montreal Bay and were able to get gas. We put 11.5 gallons in a 12 gallon tank and couldn't have asked for a better time to get the best mileage we'd ever gotten from our car. Montreal Bay was some 49km short of the Carver and I'm thinking we would have come up short.

We arrived in Sault Ste. Marie, MI around 9PM, got some dinner, and then crashed at the Comfort Inn after getting phone numbers for repair shops in town to get the wheel studs fixed the next morning.

Day 12: August 18th, 2009 (Tuesday)

It took a few calls before I was able to find a repair shop that could fix the studs and get us on the road in the morning. The car was on the lift by 8:30AM though we didn't get on the road until 11:15 because the shop didn't call me to tell me it was done... probably at 9AM. Nothing $38 wouldn't fix.

The rest of the day was rather uneventful. Mostly just interstate, gas stops, and eventually getting back to Navarre around 9:15PM.

Fishing Statistics:

This is the important part, right?

Are we at all surprised that Marty caught the most? Of course, it's not a competition... oh wait, yes it is. ;)

Hopefully, we'll get to do it all again next year. Well, everything except for the vehicular mishaps.

We're back

2009-08-19T10:37:00.002-04:00

After a fun and eventful fishing trip to Canada, we're back. Once we get things organized and back to normal, we'll fill everyone in on how it went.

Canada bound

2009-08-06T16:58:00.004-04:00

It's very nearly hurry-up-and-wait time as tomorrow morning's departure for Canada approaches. We're loading up the vehicles in a few hours and then we'll be about 99% ready aside from the requisite coffee and odds and ends in the morning. The last time we went fishing in Canada was in 2005. I was looking back through the archives and that trip happened about 2 months prior to the start of ye olde blog. Needless to say, it's a lot of fun despite the nearly 1,000 mile drive to Nakina, Ontario. From there, we'll be flown in a float plane about 110 miles northwest of Nakina to Felsia Lake. It's quite remote with the nearest town about 70 miles away and no roads to get there. About the middle of next week, the float plane will stop by to check on us and drop off ice and gas for the boats. It really is nice to get out in the middle of nowhere sometimes. If you look at the map I've linked to below, you'll see that we'll be at approximately the same latitude as the southern end of Hudson Bay. That's up there.

Click Here for a Map of Felsia Lake from the Atlas of Canada

We'll be back on August 17th and will definitely have tons of pictures and (hopefully!) fishing stories to tell that will all be true...

Tough time to be a Cleveland fan

2009-07-29T22:45:00.002-04:00

WARNING: This post contains mostly information of a non-cycling nature. I do actually follow a few other sports. Reader discretion is advised.

Baseball, basketball, and football. I've rooted for every Cleveland representative in these respective sports. Admittedly, I'm not the biggest NBA fan, but I watched nearly all of the Cavaliers games this last post-season. It was exciting despite their not making the finals. For as long as I can remember, I've been a Browns fan. Even through all of the heartbreak of the late 80's. Seeing the team leave and then return. The last couple of years we still got to see and/or listen to games while living in Idaho. Despite their record, the Browns were at least in the game and/or winning a lot of the time. We had many 'Cardiac Kids' moments during the last few years that kept it exciting.

The Indians, on the other hand, I have only really come to be a fan of during the last 9 years. Prior to that, I was a long-time Cincinnati Reds fan. I can't tell you how many times I fell asleep with the radio tuned to Reds games and Marty Brennaman and Joe Nuxhall calling the game. Remember the Reds in the early 90's? There was a lot to be excited about then.

Well, the Indians did give us something to cheer about a couple of years ago after a long hiatus. Anybody who follows the Indians knows how this season has gone. Some can be blamed on injuries. I don't need to say anymore than has already been said about the bullpen. Even though the team is below .500, there are (now, maybe were) some bright spots in the lineup. Again, anybody who follows the Indians knows who these are:

-Grady Sizemore
-Travis Hafner
-Victor Martinez
-Shin-Soo Choo
-Ben Francisco
-Cliff Lee
-Ryan Garko

This week started off horribly with the Ryan Garko trade for a friggin' Class-A pitching 'prospect'. I know the Indians need starting pitching, but come on, Class-A? Why didn't they just pick up some little leaguer? Just when the the Indians were actually winning some games, they decided to get rid of a solid first baseman that can actually hit the ball.

Then, today, they trade Cliff Lee and Ben Francisco to the Phillies for THREE (actually four) MORE MINOR LEAGUERS. Oh wait... I mean 'prospects'. Cliff Lee is, by far, the best starter the Indians have (had) this year. Remember, pitching is the Indians' weak suit this year. Guess that means we should give up our best pitcher right when we need him most. Sounds logical, right?!? On top of that, Francisco has one hell of an arm in the outfield to go along with a decent batting average and a base stealing threat. Sure, he's no Carl Crawford or Jacob Ellsbury in the SB department but Francisco and Choo at least make opposing pitchers pay attention. The Phillies didn't even have to give up any of their good pitching 'prospects' to get Lee either. The Indians got another stupid Class-A pitcher in the deal.

To make matters worse, there is even talk that Victor Martinez is on the block as well. I'm sure the catcher from the Phillies deal is going to be just as good... He's played a whopping 7 games this season.

Perhaps the most telling thing about both deals is that the Indians have basically traded starters for minor league players. What does this say about the Indians' minor league organization? Is there currently not enough good talent in the minor leagues that can help in the future? Aren't the minor league teams supposed to 'develop' these 'prospects' into actual major-league players for the future? These guys they just picked up had better be damned good because, otherwise, Cleveland got screwed. Philadelphia didn't have to give up their most precious pitching talent they were willing to deal for Roy Halladay.

It almost goes without saying that the Cleveland Indians management has given up on winning in the 2009 season. Who cares they won 12 out of their last 14 games? Cliff Lee wouldn't have made an impact on the 2010 season, right? Sure, he's eligible for free agency after next season and might not be here in 2011. Why not get one more solid year out of him as a STARTER and actually DEVELOP some other pitchers in the meantime?

Perhaps I'm just a bit cynical and tired of 'rebuilding'. At least the Browns have acquired some players to try and win. I don't think I'm going to watch any more Indians games this year. I can't root for a team that makes it obvious they don't care about winning.

July 26th Update

2009-07-26T14:56:00.002-04:00

Not really a whole lot going on in this neck of the woods. We're continuing to make preparations for our fishing trip to northern Ontario in a few weeks. Hooks are sharpened. A few reels still need some new line. We've picked a few new lures that are guaranteed to hook the big ones... The more I prepare, the more excited I get about heading up there. The thrill of hooking a big northern pike along with simply being in a pretty unspoiled place can make it hard to want to come back. Henry David Thoreau put it best:

"Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after."

While I probably won't use too many rubber worms up north, I've been using them a lot lately for largemouth bass with pretty good success. Combined with the braided line that Marty recommended, I've caught quite a few largemouth bass in the last week. I'm typically a big fan of topwater, but the warmer water seems to have them a little deeper. The braided line has helped me feel a lot more strikes (I still missed quite a few fish) and rubber worms with an orange tail seem to be what's been working best. I was a little surprised to catch a crappie on a rubber worm yesterday morning. There's a first time for everything.

In a previous post, I mentioned that Lorena had made a strawberry/black raspberry tart that was particularly awesome since strawberries and black raspberries were in season at the time. I finally got ahold of the pictures of that tart.

It tasted every bit as good as it looks. Blackberries are what's in season now. Perhaps we'll have enough to sell at the Navarre Farmer's Market next Friday. They've already made there way into our pancakes and certainly make battling the thorns while picking worth it.

Wow. For not a lot going on I sure was able to write a lot...

Curiously Electric

2009-07-17T11:40:00.002-04:00

WARNING: Geekiness follows. Proceed at your own risk.

In the last post, I mentioned that I was going to build a MintyBoost USB charger to take on our Canada fishing trip. Even though it will charge our iPods, my primary concern is keeping our cameras charged while we're out in the boonies. After all, we have to be able to provide photographic evidence of our fishing prowess when we reel in the big ones...

Well, yesterday evening I set about the task of soldering up the circuit from the kit I purchased from Adafruit Industries. It took me probably 30 minutes to do all of the soldering and was the first time I'd ever soldered components to a circuit board. Let's just say that it wasn't as daunting as I feared. It helps to use small diameter solder. After everything was soldered, I popped in a couple of AA batteries and checked the output voltage on the USB jack. A perfect 5V! The circuit was working properly and I was pretty ecstatic.

Next, I cut a slot in the side of the Altoids tin for the USB port. The circuit board and battery holder are mounted inside the tin using double-sided foam tape that was provided in the kit. This is especially important for keeping the pins protruding through the bottom of the circuit board from contacting the tin and shorting out the circuit.

Now came the real test. Would it charge the camera? Before plugging in the camera, I turned it on to see how much of a charge it already had. There was about 1/3 of the camera battery left before charging. I plugged in the USB cable and, sure enough, the indicator light on the camera came on just like it does when I plug the camera into my laptop. There are 3 lights on the camera that sequentially flash and then remain lit as the battery progressively charges. Apparently, the camera battery was a little under 1/3 of a charge because the first light flashed for about 5 minutes before holding solid. After that, the second light started flashing and I was really happy because it seemed to be working just like it should. The AA batteries certainly got warm in the process, but I wasn't surprised since the charging current of the camera is effectively right at the max current the batteries can deliver.

At this point, I opted to leave it alone for a while to see if it would fully charge the camera. In the interim, I rode up to meet Lorena as she was riding home from work. Having been gone for a little over an hour, I checked on the charging progress when we got home. I expected to see 3 fully solid lights, but the second light was still flashing. Hmmm. If the MintyBoost was going to fully charge the camera, it should have done it by then. The AA batteries weren't warm anymore either. I assumed they were dead. Time to honor the troubleshooting process.

The first thing I did was unplug the camera and check the output voltage on the USB jack. It was still at about 5V. Hmmm. I guess the batteries aren't dead after all and the circuit isn't burnt up. I then turned the camera on to look at the battery indicator and it showed a full charge. Well, that's odd. Apparently, there are some quirks with using the MintyBoost to charge our Kodak camera as it pertains to their external charge indicator lights. I'm not an electrical engineer so I'm not even going to guess at what the issue is. I do know that some other devices have quirks as well.

If you're interested in building your own MintyBoost, the instructions and documentation on their website are fantastic. For ~$20 and a little time, you have a great little pocket-sized USB charger that works for a lot of devices in a pinch. The only drawback is that I'm not sure what the TSA people at the airport would think about it in your carry-on. Home-built electronics would probably raise a few eyebrows.

A whole lot for a Tuesday

2009-07-14T22:24:00.003-04:00

A lot of times when I'm out on my bike I'm reminded of why I enjoy riding so much. Sometimes, it's a great view from atop a ridge on a road I've never ridden before. Sometimes it's when I'm on my mountain bike and I'm able to ride through something that would probably be difficult to walk. These things and many more moments of bummer life avoidance that I can't remember were part of rides of the last two days.

Monday, I took my cross bike out because I wasn't sure exactly how many gravel roads I was going to encounter on the myriad rural roads I planned to hit to the west. On the gravel sections I did encounter, it seemed as though the majority of traffic was of the horse-drawn persuasion. That's fine by me and, on the gravel, it was almost smoother to try to ride in the buggy tracks. There is a pretty decent climb up to Alabama Ave. that affords a nice view.

Tuesday, we headed out to Vulture's Knob for a few fast laps. We were joined by Cary, Keith, Heath, Nick, and Chris and therefore had employees of three different bike shops representin'. The Knob is totally fun again. I'd have had more pictures along the trail, but I was too busy chasing Cary to pull out the camera. In addition to being faster than us, Cary also wins the award for the most awesome vehicle for getting there. If you haven't seen pictures of his beast, check them out here.

Wednesday, weather permitting, we'll likely head out to Orrville for the weekly thrashing. Next Tuesday, also weather permitting, we'll probably be riding mountain bikes at West Branch.

Changing gears... (pun totally intended)... Lorena and I are big fans of the band Cake. Every once in a while I poke around the 'News' section of their website and check out the various links they post. Via one of the links they posted, I came across this video that I thought was actually very well done considering I don't really like hip-hop.

If that doesn't float your boat, I received a new toy in the mail today that is the 'Minty Boost' kit for turning your old Altoids tins into a battery-powered USB charger. I have to solder it all together and then I'll be able to use it to charge our digital camera when we're in northern Ontario fishing in about a month. A little geekiness never hurt anybody though a USB charger likely will not help in the event of a sinking boat. Well, unless you can charge your bilge pump via USB...

If you don't like YouTube or electronics, well, you're probably not reading this. But, if you are reading this and want something else to read, I suggest the book 'Sick Puppy' by Carl Hiaasen. Just finished it yesterday and it was quite enjoyable from start to finish. Lots of nice plot twists and definitely not for kids.

How's that for a little brain-dump? Now, go ride your bike.

What are the odds?

2009-07-09T16:15:00.002-04:00

A few weeks ago the pedal threads stripped in the non-drive crank arm on my single speed mountain bike. I figured I'd just order a new crank arm until Marty suggested I just have a helicoil insert put in it to replace the threads. Having used helicoil inserts before, I thought it might work though I was a little concerned about durability considering the crank arm is made of aluminum and, after all, it is going on a mountain bike that is used for actual mountain biking.

The other day I went up to the bike shop to have them either install a helicoil or order a new crank arm. Much to my surprise, they had a used one in their parts bin that was an exact match except it's a Bontrager instead of a Truvativ. Maybe a black, 175mm, ISIS, left side crank arm is more common than I realize. I was just glad to walk out of there with exactly what I needed for less than the cost of having to order a new one. Even funnier, Heath had one among his spare parts as well.

With the singlespeed back in working order, I decided to ride it instead of my Gunnar for two laps at West Branch State Park on Tuesday. I felt like I was learning to ride a mountain bike all over again. We typically ride the trail counter-clockwise to have the rocks first. Being used to having much lower gears to pedal over most of those rocks, I got myself stuck numerous times because I didn't have enough torque to get over them. What I learned from the first lap is that I needed to simply carry more speed to compensate. The second lap went a lot better as a result.

Last night, we were back at West Branch again and I opted for the Gunnar and more gears. It's amazing how much of a difference there is. Maybe the single speed isn't set up quite as close to my Gunnar as I thought it was. I just felt so much more comfortable and only had to dab a couple of times in the rocks. The doubts I was beginning to have about my technical riding skills while riding the single speed were quelled by last night's ride. I was definitely a much happier camper.

Afterword, the group headed to The Zephyr for beers on the patio and burritos from Taco Tontos. As Lorena will tell you, Taco Tontos is one of my absolute favorite places to eat and July's burrito-of-the-month is called the Sting-Rae. It is ridiculously good and you should eat one. Don't get me wrong, Ray's Place has great burgers and an awesome beer selection for post-ride recovery. I've just never been disappointed by Taco Tontos... except that they're closed on Sundays. C'est la vie.

If you're going to be near Navarre on Friday, July 10th, and need black raspberries, we picked quite a load of them today and will have them for sale at the farmer's market at the Navarre YMCA. The market runs from 8AM to Noon.

A Berry Good Weekend

2009-06-30T18:43:00.003-04:00

Stained fingers with a few thorns for good measure. That's what you get when the raspberries are ripe and you pick a few gallons. Around Lorena's parents' property, the raspberries are abundant this year and so we spent quite a bit of time picking them on Saturday and Sunday with jam being the result of Saturday's picking. Sampling at the end was only natural and this definitely passes the test. (And yes, we had more than one jar of jam...)

My left hand looked like I'd smashed it with a hammer because it was so black and blue from handling all of the juice-covered strainer parts after we were done using it. Fortunately, it's nearly all worn off since.

Last night, Lorena made a mixed berry tart to take to a dinner party that also included some strawberries that we picked on Thursday at a farm just outside of Navarre. This tart was amazing both in taste and presentation. Unfortunately, photos of the tart will be forthcoming as they are sitting on somebody else's camera at the moment. Too bad strawberry season is nearly over. Then again, something just as good will be in season soon.

On Sunday, Lorena and I went up to ride mountain bikes with Heath at West Branch State Park. There was a slight chance of rain, but we thought we could get in our ride ahead of the rain. We got in one lap and then it started sprinkling a little bit. Then it started raining in earnest, so we headed to the car to wait it out. After about 10 minutes the rain stopped and we decided to ride the second lap. This proved to be a doomed decision as it started raining again shortly into the lap. The corners and roots were getting pretty greasy and I know I washed out the front wheel a few times. We opted to call it a day after about half the lap and headed back to the car. Oh well. In the end, we still had a 15-mile ride on some of the most fun trail around.

I know that it didn't happen over the weekend, but today's ride at Mohican State Park was awesome. Nearly perfect weather conditions with temperatures in the 60's and, though the skies looked a little threatening, we never got any rain. The trail conditions couldn't have been much better with no mud and great traction. That 25-mile loop is probably my favorite mountain bike trail. We finished in 2hr44min with one person getting a flat and one potty stop. I'd be interested to know how fast others do it. (Preparing to be humbled...)

That's about all for now. Time to rest up for tomorrow's Wednesday Night Worlds in Orrville. That is, if Mother Nature doesn't come circling with her hatchet...

Slow Roast

2009-06-25T16:11:00.000-04:00

Now we know what that hunk of meat feels like in the oven. Holy crap has it been hot and humid this week. A person could develop a serious case of "swamp ass" just sitting there typing up a blog post. The same held true for the Orrville club ride last night. Take an already hard ride and then do it in 85+ degree heat and you will be quite cooked at the end.

On the A-ride, things took a turn for the painful within the first 10 miles as Jeremy Grimm towed us into Apple Creek at ~38mph. My heart rate was pushing 190, I was nearly spun out, and barely holding on. Things eased up a little bit after that though we did push it fairly hard down into the swampy bottom near Shreve. Our average for the first hour was over 21mph. That's when Wes got a flat with ~30 miles to go. We hung around for a little bit as he had some difficulty getting the tire to hold air and the group split into two groups headed towards Fredericksburg. The climbs on Harrison Rd combined with the heat was pretty destructive. Fortunately, there is cold water available at the park in F'burg and it couldn't have come too soon as I was down to half a bottle with an hour left to ride. Due to the flat, we had to cut a few miles off to get back before total dark. The ride still ended up being 52 miles with a final average of 19.3 mph. I wasn't the only one shelled toward the end and Ryan and I rolled in together at a fairly comfortable pace. Throughout the ride I experienced occasional stomach cramps that I'm not sure were caused by the heat. Yesterday morning I thought I was going to hurl from 2-2:30AM and I don't know if there was anything still lingering in my system from that. Whatever the case, the magical water in Fredericksburg helped make the cramps go away. I think Mr. Lorson put it best when he said there's just something magical about being in Fredericksburg in general. You really should watch them play softball down there on a summer night. Those girls kick ass and take names while wearing a dress.

In other bike-related areas... My single speed mountain bike is a little out of commission at the moment since the pedal threads in the left crank arm are stripped.

This happened last week as I was test riding it after replacing a broken spoke nipple and making sure the front wheel was true. I bought the crank a few years ago and didn't use it until now. I don't know how bad those threads were before I got them and I'm wondering if that was the reason they sold the crank. I bought it pretty cheap so it's nothing $20 for a new crank arm won't fix.

Some storms are brewing on the horizon. I just hope they get here and cool things off a little... but, not too much rain. We have plans to ride West Branch tomorrow.

Storm chasee

2009-06-19T22:41:00.003-04:00

That was my role on this evening's ride. A ride that ended in me getting drenched. I made sure to check the radar for any potential nasty weather and felt like the storms that were well northwest of I-71 wouldn't make it here in time to get me wet. Boy, was I wrong. The entire ride I had an eye westward and, while the sky was dark, it looked like I was going to make it back with no problem. I guess that when you play chicken with Mother Nature, sometimes she's waiting there with the hatchet for when you put your neck on the chopping block.

I was in time-trial mode for the 10 minutes prior to getting deluged, but it wasn't enough. You'd think that pushing 25-30mph would have been enough to stay ahead of it, but judging by the distance the storm covered during the time I was out, I think it was traveling twice as fast as I was. After a VERY muggy Ohio June day, the sheets of rain felt kind of good. I don't necessarily mind riding in the rain when there's no other option. The only thing that really annoys me is when you get water inside your wheels. I was really surprised by how much made it in there in the very short distance I rode in the rain. I had to take the tires off and let the water drain out of the wheels. One nice thing about a carbon bike is that at least I don't really have to worry about rust!

Looking back, I did have one alternate road I could have taken that would most likely gotten me back in time to stay dry. As I rolled past that road I thought "Hmm. I guess I'm fully committed to finishing the loop come rain or shine." A couple months ago I was doing the same route under the same circumstances. That day I took the alternate route and stayed dry. Can't win 'em all.

That thing all bike racers have in the back of their minds

2009-06-11T08:00:00.001-04:00

I first saw this VeloNews article linked from the BikeSnobNYC blog. If you haven't read it, you should. Wheel failure, especially front wheel failure, is something you'd rather not think about, especially during a bike race.

A Shattering Experience

The pictures say it all. Yikes!

Bummer-Life Avoidance... check

2009-06-10T10:03:00.002-04:00

That was the premise of this last weekend. Lots of good fishing, good rides, good beer, good food, and good company. We hit up the St. Clement's Festival in Navarre on Saturday. Lorena related it to the Barlow Fair, Ohio's Oldest Independent Fair. The primary differences being that there's no beer and gambling at the Barlow Fair and the Barlow Fair is not put on by a church. We had a requisite sausage sandwich and funnel cake, the staple of any fair-shaped event. I must say, nothing quite compares to a sausage sandwich as prepared by the Warren High School band boosters at the octagon building at the Barlow Fair. Did I mention that you should attend the Barlow Fair? You should. However, you should be prepared to watch the tractor pull into the wee hours of the morning.

Sunday involved some mountain biking followed by dinner at Ray's in Kent. I was prepared to eat a Mofo burger before the ride even started. Also, Great Lakes Grassroots Ale is fantastic. Get it while you can.

Other than that, work-wise, I'm in the final week of my project. It's wrapping up nicely, but I don't know what happens after next Monday. I guess we'll see then...

Night rides are fun

2009-06-04T12:07:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was a rather dreary day as mentioned in Lorena's post and the rain cancelled yet another Orrville club ride. Watching the radar throughout the day and watching the rain fall outside the window in front of my desk, it certainly looked like I wasn't going to get a ride in. That is, until the rain stopped around 7:30PM and I decided to throw my lights on the mountain bike and head out on the roads for a night ride.

The roads were obviously still pretty wet and so I opted for arm and leg warmers and even put on the shoe covers to keep my feet from getting completely soaked. I thought I was done with that gear for the year, but I was pretty glad to have the shoe covers since they absorbed 95% of the water that hit my feet and take a LOT less time to dry out than shoes. I did take along my rain jacket just in case but, thankfully, didn't need it.

I've always enjoyed night rides. We've been on numerous "Amish night rides" with the OCC in the past and would sometimes go ride the Ohio & Erie Canal towpath at night during the summer just for something different. The frogs get really loud at night down along the canal. Traffic is generally pretty light on the back roads because most people are at home instead of out on a bike. I wish I could have seen the expression on the person's face at 9:45PM last night as I zoomed past the end of their driveway while they were setting out the garbage. It's fun to be the anomaly.

One of the most peculiar sights of the ride is the giant gas flare on the landfill just north of Bolivar. I saw it from a distance but thought it was from a plant further north. As I approached the intersection of Sherman Church Rd and Hudson Rd, I got a clear view of it. It's pretty scary looking at night. I assume they're burning off methane from the landfill? Since we don't typically drive that stretch of I-77, I'd not seen it before. See? Another benefit of night riding. Getting to see the world in a little different "light". Ha!

I'd better end this now before the jokes get any worse.

Rainy Days

2009-06-03T18:44:00.004-04:00

Cool, rainy days often call for an extra cup or two of coffee. They also often call for some sort of home baked treat to productively warm up the house. So, what could be better than combining the two and baking up a coffee flavored treat. Today called for Mochaccino Brownie Wedges, minus the hazeluts, from the HayDay Country Market Cookbook. It was a quick and easy dessert to prepare and rather tasty, though a bit reminiscent of Guinness Brownies. Perhaps my next food "experiment" will have to be a side-by-side taste test between the Machaccino and Guinness brownies. Update: The flavor develops deeper complexities as the brownies rest. They are even better the next day. Yum!

Some interesting things about new SRAM XX group

2009-06-01T12:30:00.001-04:00

I found out about SRAM's new XX group via a link to a BikeRadar.com article that showed up in the dirtrid3r Twitter feed. Seems to me that the engineering department at SRAM is pretty serious about dethroning Shimano. Aside from the fact that the XX group is more that 0.5 lbs lighter than XTR, there was something else that really stood out to me as an indication of some serious thought being put into component design. The shape of the internal structure of the new cassette really caught my attention because of some work I did at the University of Idaho.

(photo by James Huang, BikeRadar.com)

There is certainly a lot of material milled out of the inside of that cassette and is likely the primary reason it's so much lighter than its XTR counterpart. Seems pretty obvious, right? Reduce weight by removing material. Duh. The real kicker here is where you put the material that you don't remove. SRAM has made the "spokes" of the cassette follow a spiral pattern. This is arguably the optimal placement that could be used in this application: transmitting torque efficiently while minimizing weight. Ideally, these are logarithmic spirals, but I won't get into the gory details as to why it works... As a side project at the University of Idaho, I used the same concept when designing the new wheel centers for the ME department's FSAE race car.

In the race car application, there have to be spirals in both directions to counteract both the torque required to go forward and the opposite torque imparted due to braking. In the cassette application, there is only torque applied in one direction and is why they can get away with only one set of "spokes". I used a design optimization program called Genesis to determine the correct shape of the wheel center. You can see the spirals show up in the image below. (Red indicates required material. Blue is unnecessary material.)

The optimization software basically evolved this shape through A LOT of iterations that mimic biological evolution. Pretty cool, eh? Makes me wonder if SRAM is also using Genesis?

I realize this is a serious collision of my engineering and bike-dorkiness, but I just though it was so cool and wanted to share. Now, all I need is $2400 for a new drivetrain...

What a beautiful Saturday

2009-05-31T08:57:00.003-04:00

It's hard to believe it's the weekend already. Between work and riding, I guess the week flew right by. All in all, I can't complain. It was very productive work-wise and we got in some good rides despite Mother Nature's attempts to rain us out a few times.

Speaking of good rides... Marty, Traci, Lorena, and I went mountain biking this afternoon. It was a day for "retro" bikes for Lorena and I as neither of us were riding our usual mountain bikes. Lorena was on her Trek 8500 because she's waiting on a new middle chainring (worn out) for her Epic whereas I was on my KHS single speed by choice. So far, I've been pretty happy with the two trail rides on the single speed. I think the gear ratio is pretty good, but I think I'm going to have to do something different with the tensioner setup. The spring-loaded tensioner I'm using now just doesn't create enough tension and I dropped my chain on 3 out of 4 laps today. In one case, the bolt that holds the chain retention loop in place loosened up and caused the chain to get balled up in the tensioner twice before I figured out what was going wrong. Ideally, the replacement tensioner will be a Rennen Rollenlager. I've gotten some good recommendations for this setup from the guys on Team Soupcan.

And now for something completely different...

The last couple of weeks I've been getting caught up on listening to all of my usual podcasts while I work. I quickly ran out of new episodes among the usuals and I had to go out and find something new to listen to. Enter the podcast Jordon, Jesse, GO!. First of all, I must warn you that it's very much NSFW, mainly because of profanity. That doesn't mean it's not entertaining. In fact, I'd say it's less raunchy than most morning radio shows and probably mimics how most people our age talk to their friends in real life. It's pretty much a general-interest comedy podcast on which they talk about a wide range of topics. There is a pretty active community on their website, www.maximumfun.org, and listeners are encouraged to participate in the show. Little segments like "Momentous Occasions" and the weekly "Action Items" for listeners lead to some pretty great responses. I've laughed out loud many, many times during the ~34 episodes I've listened to. Highly recommended.

I've been reading the book "White Noise" by Don DeLillo and get the feeling that I'm somehow the only person who had never heard of it previously. Since I started reading it, I've heard references to it in unexpected places. It's been mentioned a few times on Jordan, Jesse, GO! and, while we were in Marietta last weekend, there was a band on TV whose name is an exact quote from this book: "The Airborne Toxic Event". Given that the book was originally published in 1985, how did it manage to never show up on any recommended reading lists I've seen? Looking back, I'm a little surprised it wasn't mentioned in the "Technology and Public Policy" class I took during my senior year at Ohio University. Even though I haven't finished reading the book yet, I can see how this book would have applied even though it's fiction. I'm enjoying it so far, but the pace of reading has dropped off as the nice weather has crept in and I'd rather be outside. I'll probably be lucky to read two books this summer. I'd better pick another good one.

That's all for now.

Rebirth in the stable

2009-05-21T18:40:00.002-04:00

A little while ago, I posted pictures of my old KHS mountain bike frame that I stripped to have powder coated. The powder coating turned out really good with the exception of some overspray into the bottom bracket threads and the head tube. Cleaning the powder coating out of the head tube was easy, but digging it out of the bottom bracket threads took probably an hour last Saturday.

My goal with this bike was to build a single speed using parts I had on hand. Here's what I had:

-KHS Alite 4000 Frame (Obviously)
-An old Manitou fork that started it's life on Lorena's Epic
-Truvativ cranks with an FSA bottom bracket
-Chris King headset
-Riser bar w/ Oury grips
-Selle Italia SLR saddle
-Thompson seatpost
-XT V-brakes
-XTR wheelset that started on Lorena's old Trek 8500
-Lots of cassettes to choose a cog and spacers from
-A new chain
-Tires and tubes

The items that I ended up having to purchase were:

-Tensioner (via Gorman)
-Middle chainring (I somehow lost/wore out the original one with the crank. via Ernie's)
-Stem (via Ernie's)

Take all of these parts and a Saturday morning and here's what you get:

I'm running a 36x20 ratio, but have the option to go smaller with my rear cog. When you're on flat road, top speed is only about 14-15 mph. On some of the road climbs near the house it seems like a pretty decent climbing gear. Perhaps tomorrow it will get it's maiden voyage on dirt if Lorena and I end up going mountain biking. I'm pretty excited to ride it on trail and also glad to see this frame and spare parts getting used again. Next up on the powder coat list will be my Miyata frame/fork.

More food

2009-05-21T07:54:00.003-04:00

I'm still working on the 30 for 30, of course, but now it looks like I am doing a little repeating. I tried another new bread recipe this week. This time it was focaccia. Focaccia is actually the first yeast bread I made and it was good, but not quite as light and tasty as some that I have had from places like Wheatberries Bake Shop in Moscow or Panera Bread. I have tried a few different focaccia recipes and on Tuesday, tried one more. This one turned out great! I modified it slightly to add a pinch of brown sugar to the yeast and water to add a little greater rise than the yeast alone. I also used four 8-inch round cake pans, different toppings (onions, rosemary, and salt), gave the loaves a second rise and baked for 20 minutes. The dough was incredible wet and sticky and a pain to work, but the focaccia was delicious with a slightly crisp, golden brown crust and good texture and flavor all around. It may not be a very traditional focaccia because of the sugar, but we liked it and that is what mattered. It is worth the difficult dough for such good bread.

Some of our focaccia was made into fresh mozzarella sandwiches with tomato and/ or onion and lettuce, warmed on the grilled and served with Chunky Tomato and Bacon Soup from the Hayday cookbook. The Hayday cookbook is the one I am trying to "cook my way through." I have a lot of cooking to do if I'm going to get even halfway through that one in the next 10 months of so. So far, everything produced from the Hayday book has been delicious and the tomato bacon soup was no exception. At least I picked a good cookbook to work on. Though, now that I think about it, we have no bad cookbooks. Until next time, I better go get ready for yet more food.

Ritual or OCD?

2009-05-18T13:00:00.000-04:00

Whenever I'm getting ready for a ride, there's a handful of things that I always do. I know I'm not the only one who checks tire pressure, perhaps lube the chain, fills water bottles, etc... Probably the last thing I do is put things in my jersey pockets. Most often, my pockets contain a mini pump, a multi-tool w/ tire levers, a spare tube, and food (i.e. Clif bars, GU). Now, each of these things goes in a specific pocket. The pump is always in the left pocket, tube and multi-tool in the middle pocket, and food in the right pocket. Always.

I think that it's mostly an even weight distribution thing so that my jersey doesn't twist/pull to one side while riding. That can be very annoying. The food in the right pocket has always seemed very logical because I'm right handed and it's very easy for me to just reach back and grab something while rolling. The tube and tools in middle pocket also seems logical because you hopefully don't need those very often, if at all. Since they're heaviest, placing them in the center won't cause jersey to twist.

Perhaps I'm just following some unwritten rules of cycling. Perhaps I'm a creature of habit. Either way, it works for me. What things do you ALWAYS do before a ride?

The Great Garage Sale Weekend

2009-05-16T18:48:00.000-04:00

I suppose just about every town, whether large or small, has one weekend each year dedicated to a town-wide garage sale. The Village of Navarre, Ohio is no exception to this and was my first, and I believe remains my only, experience with the Great Garage Sale Weekend. The village office produces a map with all known garage sales on it, the Navarre Civic Center marquee has had the dates posted since before Easter, the local coffee shop set up extra tables, and all the churches set up lunch "stands" and/ or rummage sales. The Great Garage Sale Weekend seems to be the most happening thing in Navarre all year long, and attracts visitors from all over. (They don't actually call it the "Great Garage Sale Weekend," by the way, that's just my newly coined term for it.) People come south from Canton and Doylestown, north from Bolivar and perhaps even beyond, driving possibly 30 minutes or more to find that unbeatable bargain.

We hosted a garage sale at my aunt and uncle's house this year, a home that we thought might be a little off the beaten path, but boy were we wrong. The house is about 2 city blocks from the main drag of town and there are three perpendicular streets that lead back to the road we were located on. People certainly found their way from the main street down one of the perpendicular side streets, to our street and then back out the main road again. We were busy all day long Friday, beginning before 8:00 AM until about 4:30 PM. Saturday was a little slower, but still steady from about 8:30 AM and on. We had enough after two days and broke down shop Saturday afternoon and carted the remaining items to Goodwill. Between four people, our garage sale grossed over $1,200 in two days. I was simply amazed at the foot traffic, chaos, and excitement that can be generated by one small town creating a weekend dedicated to garage sales.

Chris's Addendum:

Lorena and I rode around on Friday looking for "cool" old bikes on the cheap. Surprisingly, the only specimen we found was this Sears Travel Bike.

We certainly weren't going to pay $100 for it. Let's just say this lead-sled was only cool enough to be photo-worthy.

Given most of the traffic jams caused by the garage sales, I think the easiest way to get around was by bike. We weren't the only ones with that idea. I was able to cover the entire town in about an hour on my mountain bike. Granted, Navarre isn't HUGE and I was only looking for one specific thing. It was just cool to see everybody interacting. I've read/heard lots of people talking about how they ran into old friends they hadn't talked to in a while. That's just really cool.

First crash of '09

2009-05-15T21:30:00.000-04:00

I wanted to get in a quick road ride on Thursday afternoon between substitute teaching and setting up for the Great Garage Sale Weekend, so I planned a relatively short route that I had never done before, though I had ridden many of the roads on other loops. Six miles into my 20-mile ride, I had a left turn off of a state route onto a side road, following a slight descent. I knew my turn was coming up, but couldn't tell quite where it was. I also knew that there was a car behind me, but I thought it was still quite a ways back. The turn came up a little quicker than I had expected, and I decided that I had enough time to make my turn as there was no oncoming traffic. I signaled with my arm and moved out into the lane and made my turn. Apparently, the driver behind me did not feel that I had enough time as he yelled, "That's a good way to get hit, lady" as he drove past the intersection. I looked over my right shoulder long enough to know that it was a green Jeep with a tan canvas top. When I looked back to the direction I was going, it was in time to see the gravel in the downhill, off-camber, left turn and shortly thereafter the road coming up to meet me. My bike washed out and I slid along my left side, perhaps because I was going a little too fast through the turn, or I was distracted. I acquired decent road rash in all the usual places, forearm, hip and lower leg, but nothing major appeared to be wrong. I mentally debated whether I should continue on my loop, or turn back and head home. I actually began to head toward the base of the upcoming climb, but when I heard the "tink, tink, tink" of another broken spoke nipple, I decided it was time to turn around and just head home. I'm glad I did; the air rushing past my damaged skin was enough to make it start to burn, especially where a tiny flap of skin on my forearm seemed to flutter in the breeze. I was glad to get back and clean up and dress my wounds.

With mountain biking, I have always felt that the first fall of a new season is the hardest one to take and I often seem to ride a little too cautiously in the spring. Once that first crash is behind you and you have come out on the other side relatively unscathed, any other future crashes, or potential crashes, don't seem quite so threatening. I have also always been much more afraid to crash on the road than in the dirt as asphalt is, usually, much harder than dirt. Now that I have my first crash of '09,--and a road crash at that!--behind me I should be able to conquer my fears and ride places like Vulture's Knob much better, right?

Probably the umpteenth time you've seen this, but...

2009-05-13T21:03:00.001-04:00

Damn, I never get tired of watching this video.

I first saw it on Marty's blog. Then, I just started seeing it everywhere. Not all of the sites below are cycling related either. I suppose that's why the video has about a bajillion views.

Marty's Blog
Kottke.org
BikeSnobNYC
How To Avoid The Bummer Life
Solo Goat
Urban Velo

and probably more than I can remember. Simply amazing and the music by Band of Horses is pretty good too. They've been on my iPod for quite a while. Contrary to one video I posted on here before.... you won't want this 5:37 back.

What a difference a week can make

2009-05-11T21:54:00.000-04:00

I have to admit that I was a considerably happier rider this weekend. Here's how it went down:

Saturday morning had me racing at Race at the Lake #4 in Monroe Falls. Last week's effort was pretty atrocious, but this time I had a good night's rest and the legs felt way better. I've been racing bikes for a long time and I never really understood how warming up on a trainer before a race could really be any better than simply riding around on side roads to warm up. Then again, I've also wondered if I really was missing something by not warming up on the trainer. Therefore, I took my trainer with me on Saturday and did my warm-up on it instead. I think the trainer will be going to more races. For one thing, you don't have to worry about being late to the starting line if you're warming up right there beside it. More importantly, I think I was able to bring my heart rate up more gradually and keep it at higher levels for longer than if I was out rolling along on roads with hills and the like. There's also no wind so you can get warm and stay that way. I felt much better when I toed the line than I have for a while.

The pace this week wasn't nearly as intense as last week for whatever reason. That's not to say it was easy. Our average was still slightly more than 23mph though every time I looked down it seemed like we were doing 28-30mph. There were a few breaks that didn't seem to last more than a few laps. We kind of let them dangle out there and then reeled them in. It wasn't my goal to spend a lot of time out in the wind, but I did help chase at least once. The finish ended up being a bunch sprint. As we came around the slight right turn into the finishing straight, the sprint just spread out and I found myself in a bit of an opening. Looking back, I wished I had grabbed another gear because I really think I could have gone a little faster. Unfortunately, I don't know exactly how I finished because they haven't posted the results yet. My rough estimate was somewhere near 10th. I was flipping ecstatic to even be there to sprint. Overall, I was very satisfied with my race and had a hell of a lot fun to boot.

Sunday afternoon had Heath, Lorena, and I out at Vulture's Knob for the first time this year. Actually, for Lorena and I it would be the first time in about three years. We gradually stopped liking the Knob before because it had a lot of really stupid features and seemed to get worse all the time. Over the last couple of years we had been told to give it another shot because a lot had been done to make the trails better and more sustainable. The trail conditions on CAMBA said 'Mostly dry with a few puddles' so we decided to give it a shot. I have to admit that the Knob has gotten a lot better. It still has some stupid stuff, but at least now you're given the option of avoiding most of the stupid stuff if you want. We got in a couple of laps in a little under two hours and had a great time. Though there really were only a few muddy puddles, I still had to do a little bike cleaning this evening. We'll probably be back there in the near future. Riding Mohican State Park can spoil you a bit because it's just so damned good and perhaps lead to unfair comparisons. I applaud all the effort to make the Knob better and hope it continues.

If you're looking for something good to listen to that's bike related, I suggest the interview with Gary Fisher as done by the Bikescape podcast. It's about an hour long and really quite interesting. He talks about how they got started 'back in the day' (Sorry, Ted) and where a lot of the focus in bike development is going today. You can either listen online, download an MP3 verson, or subscribe to Bikescape in iTunes. We met Gary Fisher at Ray's Indoor MTB park a few years ago and he was definitely one cool dude.

Finally, I literally laughed out loud at the Dilbert comic in the Sunday paper. Enjoy.

Hmmm...

2009-05-06T22:05:00.000-04:00

I typically don't mind the ads that pop up in Gmail that are based loosely on the subject-matter of the email message. It's what Google does. While reading a message about mountain biking this morning, I happened to notice this little gem of an ad over to the right.

Correct spelling is a pet peeve of mine and it's amazing to me that Google was even able to serve up and advertisement in the correct context, but with the incorrect word. I guess enough people incorrectly use the word 'peddle' when they mean 'pedal' that Google figures it doesn't matter.

Bad spellers of the world, UNTIE!

Some days you just suck

2009-05-03T12:02:00.001-04:00

That was how I felt racing yesterday at the Race at the Lake (RATL). I woke up with tired legs and never really got wound up like I wanted to. From an individual-effort standpoint, one could argue that I rode well, but it wasn't well enough to hang with the pace of the race. A Stark Velo rider and I believe a Snakebite rider got away early and stayed away. The rest broke into two chase groups with the latter breaking up as the race wore on. I was rather disappointed by my effort, but realize that it will only benefit me going forward. It was my first real race of the year and most of the field has been racing all Spring. Racing can be the best training for racing and the Wednesday night Orrville A-rides most certainly help with that. The primary reason for not racing earlier in the Spring was fiscal in that traveling to races and paying entry fees can be expensive when you don't have a job. Illness kept me away from the first two RATL races which was kind of a bummer. I'm hoping that yesterday's race and the upcoming Orrville ride will help me do better next week at the final RATL race of the year. And that race will help with next, and so on.

Today is a definitely a needed rest day. My performance yesterday wasn't due to a lack of training. It was perhaps a little too much between Wednesday and Saturday. Sometimes the legs just need some time off.

OCC Fun & other stuff

2009-04-30T12:20:00.000-04:00

We hit up the Orrville club ride last night and were so glad we did. Foul weather and/or illness kept us from going over the last few weeks. Last night's ride did not disappoint. The weather couldn't have been much better and the group dynamics seemed to be pretty darned good (based on our perceptions) in both the A and B groups. I think last night's A-ride was probably the most fun I've had on the A-ride in a looonnng time. It makes a huge difference when the group doesn't get destroyed and actually stays together for nearly the entire ride. I'm certainly not suggesting the group stayed together because the ride was easy (a 21mph average for almost 45 miles with East Moreland hill thrown in is NOT easy). Everyone took their turn on the front, got a breather, and the speed of the group stayed high. I did get popped with about 6 miles to go and had some leg cramping, but was super-stoked about my performance on the ride. It's such a great feeling when you start to get back in the groove after being sick. The real trick is not getting too run-down too quickly and risk getting sick again.

In other bike news... The UPS man dropped off my pretty new Spinergy Stealth carbon wheels yesterday. Can't wait to use them at RATL this weekend. I don't have a cassette for these wheels yet, but that should be remedied pretty quickly.

In other other bike news... I also picked up my KHS mountain bike frame from the powder coater yesterday. Turned out great. Now, all I have to do is get all of the components together to build it up in a single-speed. I spent last Sunday stripping the paint off and prepping it. Dropped it off at the powder coater on Monday and they had it done Tuesday. I recommend Rack Coating Services in Canal Fulton, OH if you've got an old frame you want to restore. They've got some good stock colors and are VERY reasonably priced compared to some companies that specialize in powder coating bike frames. Since this frame turned out so well, I've got another frame that needs stripped and coated. Here are the before and after photos.

Finally, what blog post about bikes would be complete without a mention of beer? I know for a fact that many of our readers share our love of good beer. A recent post on the Epicurean Cyclist blog had this great video about craft brewing. I totally agree with everything that's said in the video. So much of it can be extended to other things in life (notably coffee, food, and bikes), especially the quote right at the end.

I Am A Craft Brewer from I Am A Craft Brewer on Vimeo
That's all for now. I hope this rain gets through quickly so that I don't have to ride rollers today.